Glass Roses
by Rememberance of Something
Summary: Flower buds are strange things sometimes and I’m sure you’ll understand what I’m talking about if you thought about it... Sometimes they die before they even bloom... It makes me sad to think about and honestly it almost makes me cry at times...
1. Prolouge: Glass Roses

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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Prologue:

**Glass Roses**

Tragedy.

Tragic.

Such small words to describe such a horrific- is that the word, horrific?- events. Events such as these gnaw continuously at our bones, begging us to end the suffering and pain from the outcome of the event, whatever that event is. And we can't seem to aid that feeling of giving up because something deep inside us wont allow it; something inside us says keep on moving you'll get through this.

But then, these are all lies.

How can we get through it?

How can we breathe when we know that somehow through our own selfish actions we have caused someone we love to get hurt or even die?

How can we even look at ourselves in the mirror as we go to sleep alone, and know that we are alone because of our own actions?

It seems to me that when tragedy strikes, that moment is what defines us, whether we are weak, strong, both, or neither. These are the moments that create the false realizations that we call ourselves.

But then what are we?

We are what destroy everything our finger touches.

We are what kill the very creature that has brought us up and nourished our bodies.

We are what kill each other, our own brothers for either land and money or sport.

So then what is I?

I is the individual that stands by and does nothing as her team mates fall to the ground.

I is the individual who wants so badly what isn't hers and isn't satisfied when she gets something just as good maybe even better.

I is the individual who only thinks about herself and what she needs and no one else.

I is what happens when society forgets that we are all one and therefore cares nothing for the other.

I is the possessive pronoun that symbolizes all the selfish desires of the world.

So then is it possible for us to be weak and strong or to be neither?

I can't say for sure.

I can't say a lot of things for sure.

Does that surprise you?

Well, it shouldn't. I never said I knew everything about the world; I just observe my surroundings very carefully so that I may understand my fellow man. As I was saying, I can't be sure of a lot of things, such as why people become jealous and kill each other. I can't be sure why people cry or die or anything like that.

Is that what you want to know?

No, you want to know why I'm this way isn't that correct?

You want me to write down my thoughts and feelings so that you can examine them, isn't that it?

So you can tell me what I'm doing wrong; so you can tell me the "errors" of my ways.

But why?

Why are my ways the wrong ways?

Isn't it possible that your ways are the ways that are incorrect?

Why am I force to be fixed and take the blame of what happened when no one else ever does?

And can feelings even have errors?

I don't know. Are you ready to hear my story now?

I suppose you do, that's why you wanted me here, right?

So you can fix me, but then I'm not broken so there's nothing for you to fix- all right, I'll start from the beginning; the night of our last mission together as friends, as companions, and as team mates. The night he betrayed us and went to the other side for power. The night it all started…


	2. Broken, Beatened, Battered

_**Note: **I'm glad my prologue was so intense because that was what I was going for. I'm sorry that it confused some people but that's kind of the way the story is written and you'll see why at the end! Oh yes, one more thing, I realize the chapter titles may not match each chapter but that's because their lines from a poem I wrote._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line.­­_

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Part I

Chapter One:

**Broken, Beaten, and Battered**

Exactly three days after Naruto's and Gaara's had fought we were sent out on another mission to take out one of the top ninjas in the Hidden Sand Village, including his family. I remember when Naruto came to tell me about the mission. I was sitting in the village's flower garden on a white wooden bench in front of the rose bushes and jasmine flowers.

The flowers' scents swirled in the air together tickling my senses inside my nose. I can't remember why I was in the garden- perhaps to think.Yes, I believe that was what I was doing at that very moment, because I remember looking at one rose that hadn't blossom yet while the rest were in full bloom. For some reason this rose reminded me of someone, but now I can't think of whom.

"Sakura," he said as he sat down on the bench next to me, "What are you doing?"

The clouds above us rolled across the sky casting a shadow over those below; I couldn't answer him at first, but then I said, "Nothing really."

"Oh."

Things had become slightly awkward between us, not by my own fault, but because he was shamed that I had seen the nine tail fox demon that co-existed in his body.

"We have a new mission."

I nodded my head, my mind on the rose bud, for some reason it seemed to be- I don't know if this is the right word- hypnotizing. For some reason that tiny little insufficient bud had carved its image inside my brain, and wouldn't be erased. You think I'm crazy, don't you? But I'm not.

"Do you want to know what it is?" I noticed he wasn't wearing his headband that represented our village, nor was he wearing his orange ugly type jump suit thing. Instead he wore a simple black shirt along with a pair of black pants; I noticed he still had a small bandage across his cheek, where Gaara had injured him, three days prior to Sasuke's betrayal, as I have mentioned.

"Naruto," I couldn't seem to get the rose bud out of my mind; I couldn't help but wonder why it hadn't bloomed with the rest. Maybe it was sick? Even now I can't say why that tiny little bud had bothered me so much. I guess it could be the fact that winter was coming and I feared it wouldn't bloom, but instead would die. It seemed like a waste of a flower and a waste of a life, if flower's have "lives" that is.

"Sakura, hey Sakura," Naruto's voice cut into my thoughts, making my attention go to him.

"What is it?" normally if he had repeated my name continuously like he had, I would have been consumed by rage, and would have probably hit him. Why do you act so surprised? Well don't worry- I didn't hit him. That particular day I really didn't have the energy to do too much; I just had this looming feeling of despair that I couldn't place a reason to.

He sat down on the bench beside me, "What's wrong? You seemed depressed."

"Nothing, I just have a bad feeling, like something's gonna happen," he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I mean, but still his instincts were superior to most. I'd wish I'd known now, what I didn't know then maybe I could have stopped all the events that happened.

"A bad feeling?" his blonde hair fell into his face as he placed his hands on his knees and stretched his legs some; I remember thinking he had gotten taller since we had become teammates, which at the time, and even now, seemed so far away.

"Maybe I'm just being paranoid," which could have been true; but it wasn't.

"Don't worry about it, your probably just tired," he stood up from the bench and stretched some more. Naruto was always the optimist when it came to missions and his friend- I miss him now- but anyways he never seemed to get down about anything. I honestly can't think of but a handful of times that he wasn't smiling or wasn't getting on my nerves from his endless supply of energy.

"Yeah probably," I still couldn't shake the feeling; it was embedded in my mind like that stupid rose bud across from me.

"So do you want to hear about the mission or not?" his face still had a smile stretched across it.

"Okay, but lets walk I'm tired of sitting down," I stood up and began to exit the garden, the rose bud still on my mind.

We were- what do you mean why did the rose bud bother me so much?

Didn't I already state that the reason why the rose bud was bothering me at the time was currently eluding me as of the moment?

Should I continue or should I explain some more of the things that I have already said?

I don't like repeating myself so pay attention or I wont tell you what happened.

Can I continue?

Yes I can?

Good, then I will if it isn't inconvenient for your ears.

As I was saying we were outside the garden when he said, "Our mission is to go to the Hidden Sand Village, tract down and kill Shik, and need be, his family."

I couldn't believe what he was saying, this was our first class A mission since the war had started, but the fact that we had to kill Shik along with his family bothered me, "Why his family?"

"Don't worry about it," Naruto laughed, "We have information that tells us his wife and daughter are going to be out of the village when we are scheduled to assassinate him, so we don't have to kill them."

I still didn't like the fact that we were being sent off to kill a man, who many in his village believed him to be the second strongest person next to Gaara, "Why is this mission ours? Why isn't Kakashi Sensei or Gai Sensei taking it instead?"

"Because they already have missions," he informed me, "Besides we can handle this, no problem."

For some reason I stopped walking, the feeling of invisible doom washing over me in a flood, and for an instance I couldn't breathe.

"What is it Sakura?" he asked coming back to my side, "What's wrong? Are you sick or something?"

He was worried, I could hear it in his voice, but I couldn't seem to respond as the feeling became even stronger than before.

"Hey, Sakura," he shook my shoulders some, "Hey Sakura snap out of it!"

The feeling left as quickly as it came, "Huh? What?"

He let go of my shoulders, looking straight into my eyes with his blue ones, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked pretending that I didn't know what had happened to me, "Come on already."

I noticed, periodically, he would glance at over at where I was walking as if to check on me.

"Is Sasuke coming too?" I managed to ask as we passed a roman shop; I have to be honest with you I was surprised when he didn't freak out over the shop like he usually does when roman is around.

"Yeah," he answered, "We have to be at the bridge in an hour and we will receive further details there."

"Whose the leader of this mission?"

"Kakashi Sensei will tell us that before he leaves for his mission."

"Oh."

"Hey I'm hungry wanna get something to eat?" he was already turned around and headed for the roman shop that we had just passed.

"Yeah sure," I said as I followed him into the building the rose back on my mind.­­­

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An hour later we were on the red bridge, that our sensei had instructed us to be at, but of course as usual he was late. Sasuke was already waiting for us; the curse marks no longer covering his pale body. 

"Hey Sasuke," Naruto yelled, as I have said before, he had a lot of energy.

Soon afterwards sensei appeared and his first words were, "Sakura I want you to lead this mission."


	3. A Beautiful Soul Shattered

_**Note: **I really don't have too much to say except keep those reviews coming!_

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line.­_

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Chapter Two:

**A Beautiful Soul- Shattered**

Did I mention that Naruto was a very impatient person?

No?

Well he was very impatient, especially at the time when were twelve. I mean he wasn't so bad when we last met, but still- anyways as I said sensei said I would be leading the mission. I could tell that Naruto and Sasuke were just as surprised as I was when we all heard I was to be the leader of our last mission mainly because I wasn't as determined as Naruto nor was I as fast as Sasuke. I have to give Kakashi Sensei some credit though, his plans usually worked out for the better.

"But why?" I asked first before the others, however, I knew they too were wandering the same thing.

The wind began to pick up blowing our beloved sensei's white hair along with everyone else's including my own.

For some reason his voice was always pleasant even situations such as the one we were in so long ago- I often wander on whether or not it would still be pleasant today- anyways his response was, "Because Naruto rushes into things for starters."

I glanced at Naruto, and I could tell that he was slightly offended by the way his head was bent down.

"Sure," Naruto had mumbled, "Pick on me."

"I'm not picking on you," sensei defended, "it's just that this particular mission requires digression and tactics both of which you greatly lack."

I knew Naruto wanted to say something, but he didn't- he knew sensei was telling the truth. That's one of Naruto's strong points along with being so determined he also admits when he is wrong- a trait many lack. That's how he managed to get Gaara on our side.

Didn't I tell you about Gaara?

I didn't?

Well he is kind of hard to explain I don't think I could right now, so I won't try.

"Alright," Sasuke was the one who spoke next, "I get why you didn't pick Naruto, but why not me?"

Sensei sighed, after Naruto yelled hey as his- and may I add- mediocre defense, and explained, "Because she is the most cunning out of you three."

I could tell where Naruto really didn't mind to much that I was the leader Sasuke did; I wish I had also known this would be a foreshadowing of future events that I will get to later on in this story.

Kakashi Sensei glanced up at the scarlet red sky, and then said impassively, "I have to leave soon."

"But Sensei," Sasuke protested.

"One more thing," I noticed sensei was ignoring Sasuke on purpose, "You will have a guide that will help you through your mission. Good-luck!"

After he had finished he disappeared in a cloud of smoke leaving us three alone again.

"I guess," I said, "We should get some sleep and leave here at dawn."

"Yeah I'm beat!" Naruto exclaimed topping his statement off with a yawn.

"Whose our guide in the sand village anyways?" I asked no one in particular just in case sensei might have told them.

Naruto shrugged and then glanced at Sasuke, who was leaving.

"Hey Naruto, what's up with him?" I was worried; Sasuke had been acting strange lately.

"How am I suppose to know?" he demanded as we walked off the bridge ourselves.

I growled at him, our usual relationship coming out, "Your no help Naruto!"

"Why don't you ask him then?" he raised his voice and sarcastically yelled, "Since your so in love with him."

I have to admit I did have a childish crush on Sasuke for the longest time when we were younger, but not anymore especially after what he did. Your curious as to why he betrayed us aren't you? I can tell. Well that detail will be relieved at our second meeting.

"I'm NOT in love with him!" I yelled at Naruto, blushing, and then I started to walk fast.

He began to walk at the pace I was going and soon we found ourselves in a race. We ran past the ramon shop and the village garden with the rose bud in it. We raced past the steady paced Sasuke, and Ino and Shikamaru who seemed to have some form of a task dealing with raw fish. We even raced past my house until we reached his.

Naruto was laughing hysterically as I fell to the ground by the force of exhaustion; he was tired too, neither of us had used our charkas, the only thing we used was our determination to win, "That was great!"

"Yeah," I agreed looking up at the sky with a smile- I miss those child hood moments of peace and tranquility but they are all gone now and I can never get them back, like everything else.

Memories.

The happy ones, are what make it harder to breathe especially when they have disappeared with time, and you know that although you can gain knew ones they will never be able to compete with the ghost of the past. But even if are able to gain a new memory it still doesn't exist because it too will vanish before you can even truly grasp its meaning.

The best memories are the memories from childhood, because when you're a child death and pain don't exist. All those things that come out when the lights have gone off and hope no longer exist, because our hearts, in the dark, have given up- that also doesn't exist. Nothing exists but the happiness in the heart of a child; but still even those memories makes it harder to continue on this meaningless journey called life.

"I'll see you in the morning," Naruto said going inside his run down home.

"Okay."

I walked back into the street alone, the stars now piercing through the ebony slate known as the sky. Everyone was now gone, mostly likely in their homes, probably enjoying each other's company.

The rose came back into my mind. I wish I knew why that rose bothered me so badly then; isn't it weird to be bothered by something so small and insufficient?

No matter how hard I willed myself not to think about that rose I still did.

I passed the garden and something compiled me to stop. I don't know why- but I had the strangest feeling as if some unknown force was pulling me inside.

I can't really explain the feeling all to well can I?

Is it weird to think that the garden wanted me to enter inside it?

Or perhaps it was my subconscious, which I can't be for sure.

Even though the unknown force wanted me to enter; it was what finally made me step inside the man made Garden of Eden, but the figure inside it.

"Hey!" I yelled at the figure that I could barely make out using what little the light the crescent moon gave off, "What are you doing in here?"

The figure sat where I had sat earlier that day; his white robes flowing gracefully at his pale ankles.

"Hey!" I yelled again, "Who are you?"

His back was turned away from me so that I couldn't see who he was.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" he turned slightly but not enough so that I could see him.

I was so young then- I hadn't even began to put together who this foreigner was or what he was doing in our garden.

"Leave girl," the figure hissed at me making me freeze.

I couldn't believe he of all people was here, nor could I comprehend what his presence foreshadow for us; he turned to face me, his skin a sickly green color. I heard from behind him a familiar voice yell, "Sakura get out of here!"

Orochimaru ran at me but not before I caught a glimpse of Sasuke behind him. I remember the only thing I could think of was to run, and so I did. Everything around me became one huge blur, but I didn't stop. When my legs burned from the lactic acid inside them, and I felt my feet bleed from rough earth and poor shoes- I didn't stop. But he appeared in front of me anyways.

"Give up girl and I'll kill you quick, I promise," he said- I remember his voice so well that even now its as if he is standing right here telling those words to me all over again.

I bit my lip so hard that it bled; the only thing I could think to do was to fight and if tonight was the night I was to die then I would make myself hard to kill.

"Don't be stupid," he stated as I pulled out one of my iron daggers, "You can't possibly hope to defeat me."

"Leave her alone."

The person who spoke was the last person I would have ever expected to save me.


	4. Words Create No Cure

_**Note: **I don't really have anything to say._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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Chapter Three:

**Words Create No Cure**

I would have never of guessed that _he_ would save me after all he _had_ tried to kill me once before, but still anyone was better than no one- right?

I believe so, but still he was also a glimpse into the damning future a head. I blame myself for what happened after all if I had been stronger, or faster, then perhaps- just maybe I could have saved them. Just maybe. But as I have said before through my own selfishness and self-trickery I failed them just like always.

They deserved a much better friend than _myself_ and I wish I could have told them that. I wish more than ever I could see those determined eyes of my blonde companion and ultimately best friend. I wish I could see those empty, yet full of emotion pale sea foam green eyes of the man I eventually fell for- through all my efforts I might add. I even wish to see those raven locks and black eyes darker than Purgatory itself of the one who betrayed us but…

But wishing itself is useless and a waste of time. Wishes, through all their wanting, are just a way to try and escape the events that you or someone else has caused.

But as I was saying, the boy who stood in between the man- if you could call him that- who wanted to destroy my home and all those I held dear was no other than another monster whose former motive was the same.

Irony.

"I said move boy or you will die as well," the snake prince hissed stepping forward.

I looked up in see the crimson locks of my rescuer, was he seriously going to try to take on this villain, this vile creature not worth the air he breaths?

And was it for me that he took this action or was it remorse for his own threat upon my life that seemed like a lifetime ago?

My rescuer said nothing and didn't move back.

He showed no fear toward the tyrant and held nothing back in his- an adjective for his voice is almost impossible to find and if you heard him you would know what I mean- scratchy words, "I will warn you once more to leave here now."

Sabaku no Gaara.

He was indeed someone who you wouldn't want to face in battle unless you were Naruto. Though on the outside he remained calm and quiet almost invisible, when he is- I mean was- in battle he was a raging demon, literally. Still, I doubt if at that moment he could have fought Orochimaru and won, even by his insanity when it came to blood.

"Gaara," I started unsure of how to warn my former enemy, "Don't its too dangerous."

He glanced at me out of the corner of his ebony rimmed eye; releasing none of his thoughts to me, "Go home."

My next prepared statement was caught and hung in my throat, _go home?_

Had he told me, no commanded me to leave as if I was some kind of puppy that would do his bidding?

In my lack of maturity- which in truth I did lack plenty of that good common sense back then- I decided not to leave.

The snake charmer frowned his eyes locked onto the boy in front of me, "She will go no where."

Fear.

What a strange word.

For something that represents a lot of emotion that is defined as a powerful, unpleasant feeling of risk or danger, either real or imagined, it was an immensely small word. Strangely enough often the greatest words that represent the most powerful of the human emotions are small, simple words. Love, hate, life, and death- but simplicity is over rated and so is complexicity.

"Leave," he said once more ignoring his opponent.

I nodded my head; my more mature self-taking over, maybe retreating wasn't such a bad idea after all; he most certainly couldn't use me to help him not against a opponent that we faced. As I turned on my heals, several things happened all at once.

The first was that a massive amount of sand shot around me and the sand whisperer without a warning or signal, which lead me to conclude as I fell through the air- I had been knocked off balance by the sand- that the enemy had advanced.

The second event that took place that still even now leaves a light tint of pink on my cheeks was that a strong hand pulled me up by the back of my shirt and pulled me toward someone. This someone as you have probably have guessed was no other than Gaara of the Sand. He had pulled me into a tight, none affectionate embrace to help me avoid being cut by the swirling sands.

And the third event was that as soon as the sand had fallen back onto the ground in front us not only stood Orochimaru, but in the tree behind him, my friend and first crush.


	5. Voices Remaining Unsure

_**Note: **__I just wanna say that it has been two months since Tommy Leek died and even though I didn't know you all that well I wanna say that you are and were the cutest boy in our entire school. I hope you know how much your family loves you and I hope I get to see you again. So everyone who reads this chapter just knows that it is dedicated to Tommy._

_When the tears fall from the eyes_

_And the rain falls from the sky_

_No matter in the end_

_Just know you always had friends_

_R.I.P Tommy Leek_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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Chapter Four:

**Voices Remaining Unsure**

Flower buds are strange things sometimes and I'm sure you'll understand what I'm talking about if you thought about it. Sometimes they die before they even bloom. It makes me sad to think about and honestly it almost makes me cry at times.

Is it weird to cry over a flower bud?

Do you think I'm crazy because I cry over a wasted flower?

It's a waste really, it is, and I can't seem to be able to comprehend why they die.

I guess it's the concept of the death of something that hasn't even started that gets to me...

The concept that they died before they could really embed themselves in to the world...

Before they could make the world a better place.

Before they even had a chance to show their beauty.

Before we could truly know them.

Before we could see their inner beauty.

The truth is sometimes people, like flower buds, die before we can truly see them. And the strange thing is that we could see the outside of them and we thought that we knew them but we didn't, we really didn't.

Well not actually _see_ their beauty but more like in vision it, while that particular bud- say a rose bud- is still a bud, you know what I mean?

Probably not, but its not just flowers that die before they bloom, though I guess you already know that- we all know _that_.

It just seems like a waste really, and I've always hated wasting something especially something that has the potential to be beautiful.

Those that make sense to you, or am I just rambling?

But anyways, it doesn't matter, after the sand had fell back to the ground, that Gaara had pulled up, my eyes focused on a certain raven haired boy in the tree in front of us. I noticed, how big his eyes had gotten, I blushed, my immaturities whispered inside my mind.

_Was he looking at me like that?_

_Was I gaining attention from my teammate that he had never shone me before?_

Honestly I should have known better, but I didn't; I allowed emotions to rule me back then unlike I do today.

"S-S-Sasuke," I stuttered loud enough so that everyone around me could hear.

I felt an arm wrap itself around my waist, pulling me to the side some, I glanced at my former spot to see that a sword had sliced the air and the snake demon wielded it.

Sasuke jumped down from the birch on which he stood and advanced our way his teeth clenched and his hands balled into fists.

I remembered asking myself was he mad at me for something?

Was he mad that I had allowed the sand shinobi to touch me or had it been something else?

No, _there _was something else in his eye, annoyance maybe?

Hatred?

Honestly I can't remember, though he was my primary thought most of the time, this particular time he wasn't. My primary thought stood inches beside my redhead rescuer and me. I glanced to the east where the sun was now peeking through the dark trees.

Orochimaru seemed to notice as well, sheathing his sword he hissed, "I will kill you another time, but the people will be coming soon and I'm not in the mood for a battle."

With those simple, yet bone chilling words he disappeared without a sound. At the moment I thought I had gone crazy due to the lack of sleep I had gotten the past couple of days, but I knew that what had happen was real.

The only question that seemed to beat inside me with the rhythm of my heart was: why?

_Why did he want to kill me?_

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke snarled at the sand controller and I felt Gaara's arm tighten around my waist.

In the time that had gone by I had forgotten that he still had me in his grasps, and I shivered, after all he had tried to kill me that was something that could not easily be forgotten.

He must have felt me shiver because he let go of me and shove me some in front of him as if to say _my debt is paid now go away_.

I stumbled some as I almost fell to the ground and at the same time my teammate stated coldly, "Why are you here?"

The dessert native gave him this face that looked blank as if to say that he didn't have to answer to anyone, especially Sasuke, then turned on his heels to leave.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke had demanded he walk past me without so much as a glance.

"Heh," was the only reply Gaara gave him as he continued to walk on down the road, the sky broke into the warm colors of dawn.

His fists remained clenched when he yelled at the other boy, "Hey I'm talking to you!"

"Sasuke…umm," I butted in, in a low tone, "I think he knows."

"Shut up Sakura," he told me.

It stung to be talked to in such a way, but even more by him.

I watched as my teammate got into position to attack, only to be stopped by the grainy voice of the one he presumed to advance upon, "That wont do you any good."

"What are you talking you about?" he snarled.

Gaara turned half way around, his eyes shifted into my direction and then to Sasuke, "Your attack."

"We'll see about that," my crush hissed and ran at the redhead his palm lit up with white sparks of charka.

I closed my eyes, when I opened them in one hand the Hokage held Sasuke and in the other he repelled Gaara's sand shield to keep from being cut up by the rough, grainy sands that I had known all to well. He smiled pleasantly at me and informed us, but mostly in my direction, "I finally found you three!"

Sasuke struggled in his grasp for a while then quit.

Hokage continued as if nothing had happened, "All of you to my office please."

Then he disappeared leaving us alone again.

* * *

Once inside the large, cluttered office of the head of our village I noticed that the sand siblings were there as well as my energic, blonde friend, Naruto. I glanced at the hyper boy who sat in a wooden chair leaning it back on two legs, he smiled and waved at me. 

"Alright as you know, you three," he said, he being our Hokage at the time, toward the team I had been put in charge of, "are on a mission to kill Shik, correct?"

"Hai," echoed in the room.

"Good, good, then listen up, you will be escorted by Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Temari, and Sabaku no Kankuro."

Even though back then I didn't see much coming, I knew that they would be our escorts due to Gaara appearance.

It only made sense.

The room remained silent, after all no matter what we couldn't oppose our leader. Not about such an important mission as the one we had; we had to trust that he knew what he was doing. Though I could tell by the manner in which Sasuke was glaring in the Hokage's direction he wanted to say something about it, but he held his tongue.

I'll admit though I was nervous about having Gaara traveling with us but that had to have been suspected.

"Who has been put in charge of your teams?" our leader asked with a serious look on his face, the wrinkles around his eyes tugging the outer edges of his face.

"I have," Gaara and I answered at the same time.

We glanced at each other for a moment and then back at the old man behind the polished oak desk.

"Very well listen up we are going to spilt you up into three teams-"

"Which means that there will only be two people per team," I finished for him.

"Very good Sakura, that's right there will be only two people per team. Your teams have already been selected so listen up-"

"Wait a minute," Naruto had cut in, "What do you mean we will be separated into three teams?"

I saw the confusion on his face and instead of making fun of his ignorance I explained before our Hokage could, "So that we can cover more ground quickly."

"Oh I see," he smiled again.

His smiles always seemed, in their own dopey way, to lighten his features making him look in his boy like demeanor appealing.

It's kind of funny to think about actually, like the rose bud.

"Sharp as ever Sakura," complemented the old man dressed in the traditional ivory robes, "Alright here are the teams so listen up because I wont repeat myself: Sakura- you and Gaara will be teamed together, then it will be Sasuke and Temari, and lastly Kankuro and Naruto. Your dismissed."


	6. Demons Remain Unslain

_**Note: **__I would like to think everyone who submitted their reviews for Chapter Four; they meant alot to me! Oh yeah not along chapter but I have been sick so my creativity is in slow mode._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the storyline._

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**Chapter Five:**

**Demons Remain Unslain**

The funny thing about me is that I love broken things.

I like the things that you would throw out; the things that you would deny yourself the pleasure of loving and being loved by. The funny thing is that I use to surpress my wantings of what was broken; I use to deny myself of the pleasure that many deny themselves now. Because I use to be like that, too.

I use to think that what I needed or more really what I wanted was something that was perfect, and thats how I always use to view _him_.

I saw him as perfection, but I never truely really saw him for what he was; I never allowed myself to see the pain that swelled inside him with each minute that passed, and thats why I take part in the blame in the way things turned out.

I should have known as his team mate and more importantly as his friend.

Maybe then I could have stopped him from turning to the other side.

Maybe I could have saved him from his greatest enemy.

Maybe, maybe, maybe- but all the maybes and ifs in the world wont ever change the events that took place that night or the horrific events that followed and thats the honest truth. Nothing can change what happened, nothing will ever bring them back, and nothing will ever change that fact.

After we had exited the Hokage's office we were left alone to deal with the mission in any way we saw fit as long as we made sure to keep the pairs that we had been assigned to. The dawn had finished breaking through the night sky, and I knew that if we didn't leave soon then we wouldn't reach Suna until tomorrow- we couldn't afford to lose that much time.

"We need to head out," I told no one in particular heading off in the direction of the gait that told travelers that they had come to the end of our village.

"Wait a minute," I heard a male's voice, which made me quit moving, "What makes you the leader?"

That was a good question.

What made me think I had the right to lead these five to Suna?

Back then every single one of them could have wiped the floor with me without breaking a sweat, so what gave me the right to lead them?

But the thing about good leaders, pay attention because it took me years to realize this, is not how powerful or keen you are but how to lead your team mates. You can be the most powerful ninja in the world but that doesn't mean your a good leader. A good leader is trusted by the people who follow him or her, and without that trust the leader is nothing- the team is nothing. Another important thing that you need to know about teams is that your team is only as strong as the weakest link.

Weak...

Another small word whose meaning is much larger than itself.

I turned around so that I could face them- so that I could see their faces, and waited.

What was I waiting on?

I can't remember- or maybe its not that I can't remember but that I never knew what I was waiting on- I just was waiting for them; I was waiting on them, not just my friends, but the sand shinobi as well to tell me that someone else was to lead.

Yes, thats what I was waiting on.

I was waiting for them to say that I wasn't good enough, then I could fall back and someone else could lead.

"Hey," Naruto stepped in defending me against Gaara's elder brother Kankuro, "She and Gaara are in charged."

"Oh yeah," Kankuro frowned, "And why should she get to be in charge?"

I noticed that he had not questioned Gaara's authority, but just my own; it made sense considering that the elder sand siblings had been trained mentally not to question their younger sibling. Even though in- well at the time- recent moments Gaara had changed his ways, we didn't know how long it would last.

"Because," Naruto yelled back at him, each boy in the other's face, "Kakashi Sensei said she was in charged!"

"We're losing time," he had spoken slowly, but the authority in his voice was clear; Gaara knew that if we didn't leave at that time our entire mission would be at risk.

"Gaara's right Kankuro," the eldest of the siblings, Temari, spoke up her eyes set on the direction of the gait.

He let out a low growl, nodded, and began to head off toward the gait; I didn't move as my friends passed by me- I recieved an assuring smile from Naruto while Sasuke simply walked by a half smirk on his face- I only stared at him. I stared at the deadly red head with curiosity, I knew then he wasn't defending but merely stating that if we lingered our mission would be lost, but still...

I wouldn't know until later how right my feelings had been for once in my life.

Our eyes had locked and I gave him a small smile that seemed to have caught him off guard- even today, the look of his confusion from my smile is still cute- he stood there his sea foam green eyes wide in shock.

It was very rare to catch him off but when it came to compassion and love Gaara was always caught off guard, and the faces he made we're always cute.


	7. An Aching Heart's Pain

_**Note: **__I have really fallen in love with this story- I don't know why really I guess its the style that I'm writing that makes me love it. I like to read and write in the style of what I like to call Narration Confusion; the definition is quite simple: its when the narrator asks questions in the story or explains something, like a word, that connections with the story in some way or another. If you like this style then you should read __The Catcher in the Rye._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own the Naruto characters nor do I own the Naruto storyline._

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**Chapter Six:**

**An Aching Heart's Pain**

With every kick off a tree branch, with every step we advanced toward Suna my heart raced with frieght.

I was scared.

How could I not be?

Here I had been assigned to lead my friends to what could quite possibly had been their deaths- and for some I did actually lead them to their death- I would have been a fool not to have been scared. I don't doubt that my face relieved my feelings while the rest of them were calm and collect; we had been traveling for hours and now it was noon.

I had heard a crackle up ahead so I allowed myself to a stop on a large mossy branch- I should have known that something would happen because our travels had been to easy- and held up my hand to signal my teams to stop. They quickly recieved the message and hid all except for Gaara and Naruto- who had failed to see my signal and nearly slid off the branch.

That was so much like him.

He was always clumsy and unorithadox in almost everything he did, but it worked for him.

Regaining his balance, he questioned me, "Why'd we stop?"

I glanced at him then at Gaara- I was trying to see if he had heard what I had heard, and he had.

"Up there," I whispered to my blonde companion as the sand controller dissappeared in a whirlwind of sand.

We knew what he was planning for the those ahead of us- if they were in fact our enemies; we both waited for him to return but he never came back. Temari and Kankuro both appeared next to us their eyes speaking for them as Sasuke appeared next to Naruto.

Pointing in the direction I had indeciated Naruto said, "He went that way."

"So what do we do?" Kankuro asked me his tone had a hint of sarcasam in it.

"Uh..." I couldn't think of what to say.

I remember my thoughts clearly as if I was thinking them right now: why had sensei chose me?

I didn't want to lead them- I didn't want that responsibility. I would have galdly have let Naruto or Sasuke lead but I knew I couldn't and that fact irrated me; I wasn't there for glory or fame I just wanted to be a ninja- thats all.

The truth is that back then I had no goals- I had no faith in myself, and those facts had caused me to rely on Naruto and Sasuke alot.

"Sakura," the smoothe voice of Sasuke's had cute through my thoughts and brought me back to them from the depths of my mind, "Whats your plan?"

"Uh..."

What a good question- truth be told I had no plan at the time- my eyes shifted to eye face that was staring at me.

"Sakura," Naruto's voice cut through my thoughts this time, "You can do this."

How such a small statement could have made me believe that I could actually do this- lead them- I will never know but it did.

"Alright," I couldn't believe that my small, quiet voice held such a strong sense command in it, "This is what we're going to do: Sasuke you and Temari scout a head and hide yourselves among the brush you'll both be our back up in case these guys are stronger than what I think- Kankuro and Naruto I want you two to hide in the brush and wait for my signal."

"Whats your signal?" Naruto asked, he was trying his best to take in my plan.

I motioned my left hand so that my index finger and my thumb formed an L shape and held it above my head, "This is for you two- Temari and Sasuke this is our signal," I then motioned my right hand into a fist with the exception of my index finger and held it straight in front of me.

"Got it," Sasuke informed me right when Temari nodded her head; they both vanished as Kankuro and Naruto dissappeared in the tree branches.

I ran straight until I reached a small clearing in the woods where about ten rogue ninjas had Gaara surrounded; he was bleeding on his right shoulder the sight of his blood made me freeze up.

I didn't know how these strangers had managed to hurt him but I remembered that I had vowed to find out.


	8. Tears Fall to the Ground

_**Note: **__This story is getting really popular, who would have thought? I thought the style I was writing in would cause confusion so not many people would like it but it seems to have had the opposite effect. I'm happy!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline._

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**Chapter Seven:**

**Tears Fall to the Ground**

Bravery.

Fear.

Funny how those two mix together as you face something most dangerous in your life, it's equally as funny to think that these two emotions that often mix together- mean two opposite things. They make me wander sometimes.

The truth is I wander about a lot of things lately that I never really wandered about before.

Its strange isn't?

Its strange how we think about things we never really thought about before when something awful happens.

It depresses me at times.

At the times it depresses me I wander why- the thoughts that plague me now in my dreams- never plagued me before.

Then it irritates me to think that I could have ever been so shallow- that I could ignore what was going around me so much that I never realized these things…

These things that burn themselves inside my mind and will now never leave me.

These things that make tears swell in my eyes even now- two years after the fact.

But as I was saying- they had made him bleed- one thing that was not easy and was practically impossible.

One part of me was angry and wanted nothing more than to tear these rogue ninja's apart, but another part of me was afraid- if they could touch him then I had no chance.

I watched for a minute as two of them advanced on him from opposite directions, my feet- by whatever power that possessed them- moved in an instant flash and I found myself facing a very surprised ninja.

"Just what do you think you are doing girl?" the leader of the pack asked me stopping the two that were about to attack my newest teammate.

I didn't need to look at Gaara to know that he was looking at me, I could feel his gaze upon my back, "By order of the Hokage of the Leaf Village, he and the rest of the sand ninjas are under the protection of his name."

To me the statement had sounded a little to confusing but it was the only thing my mouth would utter- I was shaking from both fear and anger hence my normal speech was alter somewhat.

"And what makes you think we will follow through with that order?" another man in the pack inquired stepping forward, a long sword in his bandaged wrapped hands.

"Sakura," Gaara snapped at me- his voice strained- I had assumed- from pain, "Get out of here."

"And what?" I had asked him whirling around, my rage unhidden, "Leave you alone? You're wounded!"

I looked up at the tree branches at where I guessed Naruto and Kankuro were, then asked of the leader, "Does that mean that you will not comply with the Hokage's order?"

"Does this answer your question?" his response made no sense at that moment until I saw a wall of sand explode from the ground, then I knew he had attack.

Not a good move on his part.

"FINE!" I yelled my rage reaching its boiling point- I motioned my left hand so that my index finger and my thumb formed an L shape and held it above my head signaling Naruto and his partner to help us.

They both jumped down from the birches then I signaled Temari and Sasuke to come out as well this had not been my original plan but it worked all the same.

They had the men surrounded within minutes and I could not hide the smile that had snaked its way onto my lips.

"Alright, alright," the leader backed down, "Retreat."

The three ninja's he had lead vanished but not the leader he still remained in front of me his eyes holding some kind of mischief in them.

We must of stood there for ten minutes our eyes locked on each other until I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder, I glanced at the spot that was aching to find that metal had pierced it.

I don't know how they had managed to get through our defenses, but I should have known that it had been to easy.

How could have I been so dense?

I don't really know after all they had managed to injure Gaara- what made me think they would give up so easily was beyond me.

As I began to fall to the ground, I felt someone catch me and another person, Naruto I believe- scream my name out.


	9. The Soul Remains Unsound

_**Note: **__Who reads these notes anyways?_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Eight:**

**The Soul Remains Unsound**

Sometimes bad things happen for an unknown reason- at the time they happen we don't understand why and usually when that something bad happens there is one question that beats into our minds and controls our thoughts for either that moment or several moments afterwards:

Why me?

Its a selfish question really, but then humans tend to be very selfish.

So very selfish...

You and me- we are no exception to the selfishiness of our race- its just a fact.

A fact that none of us can and will never escape...

Its a grim thought really.

As I said I felt someone catch me when the sword that the bandaged ninja was wielding pierced my flesh, I didn't see who at first due to the emense pain that I was feeling but as soon as the pain had faded some what I opened my eyes to see a pair of sapphire blues staring at me with an intensity that I knew as Naruto.

"Hey are you okay?" he asked me as I sat- my right shoulder was bleeding, but not so bad as to where I couldn't move- up.

I let out a low growl- I felt like an idoit I should have known better- and glanced about to find that my team had feld the empty field and were all in the trees above it.

"What now?" Temari asked after she had finished inspecting Gaara's wound.

"Where did they go?" I asked my blue eyed companion.

"We had no choice but to retreat Sakura," Sasuke cut in looking around as if expecting an attack.

Some leader I was- I swear I have no idea to what Kakashi Sensei was planning but whatever it had been whether or not it worked I'll never know. I was ferious with myself I kept thinking that we would have been better off with Temari or Kankuro or Sasuke or- even Naruto as a leader in my stead than me.

Back then I truely believed that I wasn't a leader; I had no faith in myself.

I- in my own self pity- cradled my head in my hands and in a low voice whispered, "You guys would have been better off with someone else as your leader than me."

Naruto had grabbed my shoulders with two strong hands- I can still feel their warmth on my shoulders even now- shook them roughly and pratically yelled, "Don't say that Sakura!"

"Shut up you idoit," Sasuke growled crouching down really low on his branch, "Do you wanna give our location off with two of our team members injured?"

Releasing my shoulders he said, "Oh, sorry."

"So," Kankuro cut in glancing around at our team, "What do you and Gaara want us to do?"

I glanced at the red-head my jade orbs meeting his sea foam green ones, he spoke as if he wasn't even stratched, "We keep moving- if we slow down now our mission will be compromised."

"What about-"

I cut Naruto off, I had already decided that I would not be the reason why our mission would fail, "We keep moving."

My team mates from team seven stared at me with shock as Temari examined my shoulder, when she was finished wrapping it I stood up, "Lets go."

I kicked off the branch and our large team set off once more with me and Gaara in the front, Temari and Sasuke behind us, and Naruto and Kankuro behind them.

"How far to we have left?" I questioned Gaara ignoring the pain in my shoulder.

"About sixteen more miles," he answered back.

I didn't answer back mainly because what could I say?

In the back I could hear Naruto and Kankuro fighting with each over who was stronger and I felt a smile stretch across my face as Temari yelled at them that they were acting like children and to shut up or else she'd show them who was stronger.

I stole a glance at Gaara who seemed more focused with each second that passed by, his crimson hair seemed to have been dancing as the wind tore through it; he must have sensed that I was watching him because he caught me staring at him.

That moment was somewhat ackward as you can imagine.

I turned my head quickly away as I could due to the severe blush that was forming on my cheeks- after all I had been busted.

We came to another halting stop but this time we were at the edge of the forest hence where the grass ended sand picked up.

"Hey Sakura," Naruto came up next to me as I tried to hide my face from him, "Why is your face all red?"

"Shut up Naruto," I growled at him turning my face so the rest of the group couldn't see what he was so naively talking about, "Its not."

"Yes it is," he contuined now pointing his finger at me.

"NO ITS NOT!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

"Alright, alright," he held his arms up defensively, "Your face isn't red."

Breaking up our arguement Gaara said- not showing any concern or care about the subject we had been fighting over, "Lets go we're almost there."


	10. Feeling Like a Fleeting Dove

_**Note: **__So part one of this story is almost done- just so everyone knows this is how this story is set up:_

_**(Before the time skip:)**_

_-Chapters 1-10 is Part I _

_**(After the time skip:)**_

_-Chapters 11-20 is Part II_

_-Chapters 20-30 is Part III_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline._

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**Chapter Nine:**

**Feeling- Like a Fleeting Dove**

The desert sand was scorching on our feet as we traveled through it- the grains of the honey colored sand some how had found themselves a way into my shoes making it very uncomfortable to travel.

Our feet dug into the sand- or at least my fellow villager's feet sunk into the grasps of those tiny grains while the natives to the minature hell seemed to get further and futher away until Gaara left his siblings- who were way a head of us- to tell me to move faster or our mission would once again be compromised.

"Its hot!" Naruto complained when we had finally reach the sand ninjas- the two elder ones were smirking at us while the youngest just stood there with his arms crossed.

Looking back on him now- while telling this story mostly- I never really realized how often he did that; I was never really sure if he did that as a way to hide his emotions or was it something else?

I couldn't really ever tell.

"Shut up Naruto," Sasuke ordered, sweat was pouring down his face from the intense heat.

"You shut up," Naruto argued back, his blonde hair was matted agaisnt his head.

"Both of you shut up," Kankuro cut in before I could say anything, his brow was creased in aggravation.

"Hey!" the blonde boy shouted, "Don't tell me what to do!"

"Temari," I had forced myself to catch up with the independent yellow haired girl, "Do we have any water?"

She looked at me for a moment then smile, "Yes, but we have to conserve it, okay?"

I nodded my head as she handed me the leather flask of water.

Temari and I- we weren't ever enemies, but we weren't exactly friends either- our relationship was consisted more of me looking up to her as someone who was older and more experience than myself.

I never got to know how she thought of me and I never told her how much I really looked up at her- before...before what happened.

"How much farther do we have?" Naruto whined taking out his own personal flask and drinking from it.

"Stop whinning kid," Kankuro ordered snatching the flask from him and drinking it himself.

"HEY!" Naruto yelled trying to get it from him.

"We need to keep moving," Sasuke informed us all.

"Yeah hes right," I spoke up handing Temari her flask and moving so that I was next to my crimson haired companion, "Its going to be night soon and thats hen our mission is suppose to go down."

Gaara shifted his eyes so that he could see me clearly without moving his head, when he was sure- well actually I have no idea what he was sure of- he moved on with me beside him. He was moving so fast that I struggled to keep up with him, and by the time that I was comfortable with our speed I found that the rest of our team was some ways behind us.

"Hey Gaara," my voice was dry from the dusty air and blistering heat, "Maybe we should slow down some."

He didn't stop, but he did slow down some, "We can't stop."

"Yeah but what if we lose them?" I wasn't trying to argue with him- I don't know what I was trying to do.

I think I was trying to sum him up- after all he had hardly spoken the entire time I had seen him- and I wanted to see...

I wanted to see if he was truely cured from his insanties or was it an act to get our village to trust him.

I wanted to know what was going on inside his head.

"We wont," then he pointed out, "Kankuro and Temari know their way to our village."

"Yeah, I guess."

He glanced at me with curiousity- I guess it was the tone in my voice that made him curious.

"Don't worry," he said- it was a small statement but for some reason I didn't except him to say it with such softiness.

Actually he didn't really say it softly- it was more of softer than his normal voice.

We traveled on at the pace we were going for hours until the sun began to sink into the earth and colors of crimson and pink exploded from the heavens- it was breath taking- it really was.

We finally stopped at the entrance gate of Suna, and waited for the others to arrive- when they had arrived the first words out of Sasuke were, "So whats the plan?"


	11. This Thing They Call Love

_**Note: **__This is the last chapter for Part I- its kinda sad but just go with it!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline._

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Chapter Ten:

This Thing They Call Love

Tears- they're like broken glass, once they've fallen and shattered you can never put them back together again.

The thing about glass is that even if you put it back together again there will always be the cracks- like inner scars- and nothing can or will ever change that. Broken glass is like death- nothing will ever be the same after the glass has shattered.

Its funny how the human heart and spirit is so much like glass- even the hardest and cruelest crimmals need someone to love and be loved in return otherwise they don't want to live- and their hearts are easily broken just like every one elses.

Gaara was a prime example of that- as a young child his father often tried to kill him and in the end his pain over came is sanity.

The truth is that he- even when his sanity was only a hair strand thick- wanted to be loved and needed just like I did and do.

You could see it in the manner he acted and sometimes you could even see it in his eyes.

Anyways, we finally arrived in Suna- the sun was setting in the West in an explosion of warm colors.

"Sasuke and Temari," Gaara began giving out the orders he and I had recieved- I was willing to let him take charge, "Take the Section One in the West."

"Right," Sasuke said as Temari nodded her head.

They both took off in the direction that he had told them- that was the last time I ever saw her alive.

Even now I have tears falling down my cheeks- do you see them?

That night of the betrayal still haunts me in my dreams- I often have nightmares about it and the _other _event; people like you- people who have never lost someone in battle or has never seen all the ones you cherish fall in front of your eyes- will never understand. You try you tell me that its not my fault- that there was nothing I could do, but your wrong. There was plenty I could have- _no should have_- done to stop him from doing what he did.

But I didn't...

Its all my fault.

The guilt will never wash away- I don't want it too.

You say its unhealthly for me to hold it all in- this is way your interviewing me isn't it?

I told you that I'm not broken- so you can put all thoughts of fixing me out of your head; you think you know everything but you don't- _you really don't_.

"Kankuro and Naruto you two are to take Section Two in the East," he pointed in the direction they were suppose to search.

"Okay then," Naruto's bubbly voice was full of excitement and hope, "We can do this, believe it!"

"Shut up kid and lets go," Kankuro ordered him taking off their assign section.

"Who are you telling to shut up?" Naruto yelled taking off after him, "I'm gonna be the next Hokage, you need to show me some respect!"

"That leaves us with Section Three and Four in the North and South," I told Gaara with a half cocked smile.

He nodded his head and we took off as well.

We found where Shik's house was about half an hour into our mission- the night sky was lit up with sparkling white stars that resembled tiny dimonds on black velvet.

"Is that it?" I asked Gaara as we crossed the street using the shadows as our cover.

"Yes," he kicked off the ground so hard that he landed on top of the building, then motioned for me to do the same.

"We should signal for the others to come," I told him reaching for the small microphone ear piece I wore in my ear.

"Wait," he held his hand up and then explained, "We need to make sure its his house first."

"Right," I nodded my head as he walked down to the right, back side of the window looking for a window.

The dessert winds were not blowing as rough as they were known to- which at the time I thought to be lucky for us.

He opened up the window without making even the slightest creak, and swung himself in- I followed shortly afterwards. The window lead into a small room which I assumed to belong to Shik's eight year old daughter, from the bed we heard something stir. Gaara released his sand ready to kill whatever had moved, but something- I don't know what it was- made me signal to him not to attack.

At first he shot me a look like I was crazy but then pulled back the sand, once he had, I walked over to the bed to see that there was indeed a little girl in it.

I motioned for him to check outside the door so we could leave- I didn't have the heart to kill the little girl.

Using his third eye to see beyound the door, he opened it and we exited the child's room; when I shut the door he said, "The mission is to kill him and his family."

I shook my head, "She's just a little kid, she can't hurt us."

He grunted- I could tell that he wasn't happy with my discission, but he went along with it anyways.

We slowly crept down the hall when a disturbance crackled through the ear pieces we were wear- you see the ear pieces were used in the manner that we could call each other for help or whatever without actually sending a ninja to play messagner- : _Someone help!_

Both of us froze, niether of us prepared to what came next: _Hes a traitor!_

"Thats Temari's voice," Gaara's voice was surprised.

I was also surprised to hear her voice and the things she was saying.

"Temari?" I spoke into the microphone, but the static was becoming increasingly louder, "Temari whats wrong?"

_Traitor!_

Her voice echoed in my mind, my legs had become weak and body was shaking voilently.

_Hes betrayed..._

Her voice was cut off by static.

I looked at Gaara, waiting for what he wanted to do.

His sand exploded from the goard on his back, his eyes wide with anger, "You betrayed us!"

"N-n-no," I stammered waving my hands in front of my face.

Through the main room's window we both heard a crash and then a familiar voice say, "Sakura where are you?"

It was Naruto.

I couldn't speak, no matter how hard I wanted too I couldn't seem to make my voice come out.

Out of one of the rooms in the hall a man came rushing out at us with a traditional style sword in his hand, Gaara- in his rage- sent his sand at the man knocking him against the wall just as a woman came out of the very same room. The woman let out a shrilling cry as she too was sent flying into the back wall, by this time the small child we had come across had opened her door.

Naruto came rushing into the hall just as Gaara was about to turn his sand on the child, jumping in front of the crying little girl Naruto yelled, "Gaara stop it!"

Stopping his sand right in front of Naruto's face he growled, "What did you do to Kankuro and Temari?"

"Sakura we're aborting the mission," Naruto yelled at me, then said to Gaara, "Kankuro has gone after Sasuke, Temari-"

His voice dropped and I knew then what had happend: Sasuke had betrayed her along with us.

"Where is she?" Gaara's voice was became dangerously deadly.

"We found her- Gaara," Naruto's voice was filled with anger and at the same time hurt, "Shes dead- you have to go stop Kankuro or he'll die too."

Without another word the sand controller vanished in the middle of his sand leaving me, Naruto, and the crying little girl alone- grabbing my wrist Naruto said, "Come on we have to get you out of Suna before dawn."

"What do you mean me? What about Sasuke?"

"As soon as I get you out of here I'm going after him," he pulled me out of the hall and into the eight year old's bedroom, making me run into the small desk beside the door.

I heard the sound of glass breaking, so I looked down and saw a tiny glass music box in the shape of a blooming rose.


	12. That Can't Be Seen

_**Note: **__So here goes Part II of __**Glass Roses**__ and I hope veryone likes it because I finally came out of my writer's block- so here it goes! Its not very long but it basically just an introduction into Part II- so this chapter's purpose is to mainly explain what happen after Temari dies up to where Part II picks up so ENJOY and leave me some REVIEWS!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline._

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**Part II**

**Chapter Eleven:**

** That Can't Be Seen**

He kept his word- Naruto I mean- once I was safe he took off after our friend, our friend that had _betrayed _us and had killed Temari and later killed Kankuro. Yes- he killed both of them, not that it was easy- by the time Naruto had returned- which was about a week later he was on the brink of death. He was lucky though- our third Hokage had passed on his title to Lady Tsunade- who was a well known healer- one of the best.

When he finally came around he told me what had happened once I was safe.

Temari was dead- but I knew that from what was said over the radio and of course he himself told me the night she died.

Kankuro was also dead- Naruto said that when Temari's alert had gone over the radio Kankuro attacked him thinking we all had betrayed them and then took off to save his sister- thats when he came to get me. Later when he went back to chase Sasuke he found that Kankuro had also been murdered- but he never told me the details.

He had tracked Sasuke for about a three days when decided to come back home then he found blood on the forest floor when he went to check it out he found Gaara and Sasuke; he told me that Gaara was back to the old him- craving for the blood of his siblings' killer. He said that thats why he was so beat up- beacuse he was fighting both Sasuke and Gaara- but they were to much for him to handle together.

He said when he woke up everyone was gone- they had vanished, but he didn't wake up where he had passed out at he had woken up at the edge of the village; he didn't know who had brought him there, but vowed he'd find out.

I think that he was hoping that Sasuke had but in the back of his mind he knew that that hope wasn't true- its depressing really.

We had trusted him, and they trusted the fact that _we _trusted him- he let us all down.

It hurt so bad then- like nothing I ever felt before, but even that pain was nothing compared to what I would feel later.

Anyways, Naruto went away to train with his new sensei and didn't come back for two and a half years- it felt like a lifetime. I became the student of the Fifth Hokage, and since I was often in her office studing about all the different wounds that a ninja could recieve in battle and how to heal them I learned several things.

The first thing I learned was that Gaara had become a rogue ninja somewhere in the East and he was hunting Sasuke so that he could kill him- it made me want to cry when I learned that. I mean Gaara had changed when we met for the second time- he wasn't insane anymore, but more or less curious and now through the death of his siblings- the first people he had opened up to- he was changed again. Only this change was for the worst- he wasn't the killer he once was, but his heart yearned for Sasuke's death.

I knew that we would meet up again, it was just a matter of time.

The second thing I learned was the location of Sasuke at that time- I didn't really learn much else other than the fact that he and Orochimaru were in league with each other; for weeks I was in denial that was true, but I knew it was. Often I had found myself crying in my sleep from nightmares of the night Temari and Kankuro died or sometimes I would cry because I didn't do anything to help.

_I was the leader that night._

I should have done something- anything and you can shake your head no all you want but the fact of the matter is I _should have_ tried, but I didn't I fell back and allowed someone else to take the lead.

I decided on the nineth night I had woken up with tears of regrett on my face I _would _never do that again.

The third and final thing I learned while in my training days was information on Sasuke's elder brother and the cause of all our pain and suffering- Itatchi; I learned where he was at that particular time- which was ironically enough in the East where Sasuke and Gaara were both last spotted which made sense- but the most important thing I learned was that he was after something very dangerous and if he got it we would all be in major trouble.

When Naruto finally returned home- he, myself, and our former sensei, Kakashi, were all sent out on a new and A class mission- of course Kakashi was our leader, much to Naruto's disappointment.

I didn't mind though- I didn't want to lead another group quite so soon.

Four days into our mission was when everything- like it was happening all over again- started going wrong.


	13. Replaying On A Screen

_**Note: **__Sorry I haven't up-dated this story in so long its just I've been busy working on a new Naruto fanfiction as well as my next Avatar: Last Airbender fanfiction._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Twelve:**

**Replaying On A Screen**

I wont bore you with the details of what happened the first three days of our mission, but instead simply say this: everything was going fine until the fourth day.

Our mission was very clear: we were to locate Itachi and take him and his partner down by all means nessary in order to send a message to the group orangized to steal the nine demons of our world.

If we completed our mission then we were to locate and capture, but not harm, Gaara so that we could extract any information he had from him- at the same time we would be a step closer to finding Sasuke.

It was a simple but brillant plan: where ever we found Itachi, Sasuke would be near, and where ever we found Sasuke, Gaara would surely follow fueled by the sweet revenge for his only family and really his first source of love.

The fourth day into this plan started off like the other three, smoothe and calm until we reached about six miles from the end of the forest; we traveled at a constant pace so that we would have a steady time each day.

We didn't realize what would happen when we reached a small clearing to rest.

Naruto stretched his arms over his head and yawned- after all we had been traveling since before dawn.

"Hey Sakura," he said as we strolled to the small creek that ran a little ways into the woods, "When we get back home you wanna- I dunno- hang out?"

My mind was distracted by thoughts of Sasuke and Gaara- and the irony of our situation.

"Hey are you even listening?" he asked me, fustration apparent in his ocean blue eyes.

"Huh?"

"I said when we get back to the village-"

He was cut off by the sound of a crash from the area that Kakashi had said that he was going to explore, we looked at each other then took off in that particular direction.

When we arrived at our destination we found that our former sensei was surrounded by several odd looking rogue ninja's, their eyes all glowing yellow with the desire to kill and their bandaged hands twitiching with excitement. There were four of them, one in front who I assumed was the leader, and three in the back of him; they looked like the fearsome sort with their grimy teeth showing their pleasure of the hunt and their stench like iron- no- like blood; their smell was so strong in that aspect that it nearly made me vomit right there and then.

I knew I couldn't.

If I showed them any signs of weakness they would chose that moment to attack- you could see that in their eyes.

Blood was what they were after and thats what they had intended on getting.

The leader pulled out a long sword his lips turned into a wicked grin, "We wont hurt you," he cooed at us as he advanced, "We just wanna play, thats all."

"Oh yeah?!" Naruto challenged him moving his hands so that he could perform a jutshu, "PLAY WITH THIS!"

He vanished from my sight- his speed had increased ten fold since we were younger- and the next time I saw him he was behind the leader; his hands moved at an alerated rate then he yelled, "Fire Flame Jutshu!"

Three large balls of blistering flames exploded from his hands sending the man flying through the air, but the ninja quickly regained control of his body and kicked off the tree heading for Kakashi.

From behind Naruto two of the amber eyed ninja attacked my blonde companion, but luckily enough I was able to send a shock wave through the earth knocking them away from him.

The third ninja headed my way with his blade raised in his attempt to impail my stomach, I moved fluidly out of the way landing on a near by rock. Once I had gained my footing I flew at my attacker only to miss and be punch in the stomach.

For a minute my vision went black and everything around me went silent.

I remember thinking that I could pass out- that no matter what I had to keep moving for the sake of my friends- these thoughts and these thoughts alone made my eye sight sharpen and the noises of battle all came rushing back to me.

We weren't winning against these strange opponants, but in fact I believe we were losing.

At the time we had no idea who they were, but we later found out.

By the end of the day, I had been pinned down to the ground with a blade against my throat cringing from the smell of the ninja, Naruto had been cornered against a tree by the other two followers his blonde hair matted against his head from sweat- I could see the exhastion written in his face, and our former sensei was struggling with the leader- he of course showed no signs of exhaustion.

Before I knew what was happening a small falcon swooped down from the skies, similiar to the way I would image an angel would, knocking the ninja on top me off.

Though I was glad that the bird had saved me I was confused.

Who had sent it?

I wandered looking around for the possible owner.

The falcon, pitch black with the exception of his amazingly honey colored eyes and silver feathers on the tips of its wings, swooped back down on the man and preceeded to peck his eyes out.

The demon-like ninja screamed in perpetual terror, trying to slice at it with his sword only to cut himself along his cheek.

"Jiyrah!" a voice barked, "Come."

I looked away from the bleeding figure that was aimless walking about now that he was blind, to see a boy standing in the shadows of the forest as the small, magificant beast perched itself on his out stretched arm, rubbing its head against the lower part of the figures cheek.

I gasped, hardly believing my eyes.


	14. Here in this Darkened Hell

_**Note: **__Not to brag but I really liked the falcon- it took me a while to decided how she looked and what her name would be but then I was watching Heldogo (I'm not sure if thats spelled right) then it all hit me. I have a really cute part planned for this story just a heads up, but its in chapters fifteen through twenty. And also if you already haven't read my other Naruto story, __**A Sapphire's Dream**__, then you should._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Thirteen:**

**Here in this Darkened Hell**

How is it that as humans we realize our true feelings until it is too late to do anything about it?

Its not fair.

Even if we finally do realize how we feel towards someone- the fact of the matter is it doesn't seem to really matter, because once we have figured out our feelings they slowly fade because to us they are no longer a mystery anymore.

To us we know how we feel and it doesn't seem that big of a deal so we want newer, more mysterious things.

We, or more of I, feel guilty because of this and feel loyal to the thing we, or I, have lost interest in and therefore hide all other feelings so we can contuine our false existance.

I didn't realize what was going to happen when we would start to travel with him.

I didn't realize that slowly I would fall in love with someone who I thought to be an enemy of my self and my friends.

Irony.

Thats the thing about it.

The person I saw as my friend and possibly more, when I was a child, later turned out to be a traitor and an enemy, and to counter that the person, as a child, I thought to be my enemy would later turn out to be my friend and possibly more.

Irony is a complicated thing full of spider-like twist and turns, making us believe one thing then turning around to prove otherwise.

It doesn't make any sense.

But then I guess thats life.

As I was saying, I gasped because once again he was the last person I expected to see and once again he had saved me, well his bird saved me.

Gaara stood holding the falcon as it nuzzled his cheek with a tenderness that you usually don't see from birds; he looked from me to Naruto to Kakashi then back to me again as if summing up the situation we were in.

"Need help?" he inquired of me as I rose to my feet in shock.

He didn't wait for a reply but instead used his sand to sling the two ninjas who had cornered Naruto away from him; his crimson hair blew gently in the air and his eyes were focused on our enemy. Reaching out his hand, he made his sand fly forward finishing off the now blind ninja in one full swoop, crushing his bones with the sand.

"That was a mistake," one of our yellowed eye enemies hissed showing his equally yellow fangs, "Now you're gonna die!"

The beast flew at Gaara only to be sent backwards by the force of his sand shield, I turned around looking for Naruto to find that he had already taken out the other ninja he was fighting.

Kakashi- Sensei appeared in the space that was between Naruto and me with blood on his clothes and smeared into his ivory locks; he signaled for me and Naruto to come to him as Gaara and his falcon toyed mercilessly with the last ninja.

"What is it sensei?" I asked him wiping the sweat off my forehead with my arm.

"I need to go back to the village," he responded to question with a deep serious underlining his voice.

"But why?" Naruto wandered, his face had a long cut on it that I assumed was from where the ninja had injured him.

"The leader of this pack escaped from me, but before he did I managed to get this from him," he held up a scroll wrapped in blue silk.

"What is it?" I inquired taking the scroll from him.

"I tried to open it but it has some kind of Jutshu on it so that I can't see whats written- I need to get it to the hokage as soon as possible," he took the scroll from me and pointed to a seal on it with the image of two serpents entangled together in a futile battle, "See this?"

We nodded our heads to show that we did, "Its Orochimaru's symbol- whatever is in this scroll he didn't want anyone to read it but himself."

"So you're saying that it could have information about his plans for Konoha?" I asked trying to memorize the snakes as best I could for future refences.

"Possibly," he replied tucking it into his vest pocket.

"What about Sasuke?" Naruto demanded.

"Look Naruto I want to save Sasuke just as bad as you but the truth is the village comes first," then he added more gently, "You and Sakura go ahead and I'll catch up as soon as I can."

We nodded our heads again just as he vanished in a cloud of smoke which was his usual trade mark.

"Now what?" I asked as I turned around to see that Gaara had finally killed the ninja he had been toying with for so long.

"We move on," my blonde companion informed me.

We both stared at the rogue in front of us for a few more seconds, watching him as he turned around to leave; then an idea struck my partners head, I know this because he yelled after the dessert born boy, "Hey Gaara why don't you join our team?"

The sand controller stopped in his tracks, and turned to face us his face clearly filled with doubt.

He must have given up on our newly formed friendship the night his siblings had been murdered.

Naruto walked up to him and prodded, "What do you say?"


	15. Where This Soul Fell

_**Note: **__Ah, chapter fourteen as soon as I hit fifteen I will have hit the halfway mark on this story!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Fourteen:**

**Where This Soul Fell**

He looked at the hand that Naruto had extended to him with an expression of distrust and anger.

I could see in those sea foam green eyes trimmed in ebony that he still blamed us for his siblings death, and he should.

They had trusted us and we let them down.

We had trusted him and he let us down.

"No," it was a simple word and one that made me nearly cry.

Naruto clicked his tongue for a few minutes in thought then said gently, as if he was talking to a small child, "Awe, come on we need another person for our team!"

"No," he repeated, his tone was not angry or hurt, but distant and emotionless.

It was depressing really, after all he had changed for the better.

But now-

Then-

He was different, possibly more than ever before.

The beautiful and curious beast on his shoulder took flight swirling up in the air for a few moments before coming to land on Naruto's shoulder; she sat there for a few minutes as the blonde stroked her silver tipped wings for a few moments. Gaara watched on in silence as if waiting for some kind of signal from the bird to see if it was safe or not.

"Things wont be like last time," Naruto's voice was so low that I could hardly hear him, his head was bowed so that his hair fell in front of his eyes.

I took a step forward so that I could see his face.

It stung to see that damn tear fall down his cheek, he never cried but then there he was with just one tear on his cheek. I looked up at Gaara to see if he had see it and he had just like me.

I bit my lip.

I don't know why Sasuke had to be so selfish, but I did know that seeing him cry made me decide on something:

We _were_ going to get him back _alive_ and Gaara was _going_ to help us.

"You're after Sasuke right?" I asked, my voice held leadership in it, the irony of it made me nearly laugh.

He looked at me for a moment his eyes not shielding anything from mine, "Yes."

"Then travel with us!" Naruto flashed him his usual grin.

He must have been trying to hide the fact that just now his emotions had gotten the better of him; he was always doing that kind of thing- thinking that he always had to be the stronger than the rest of us. I'm not sure if he acted that way for us, or if he did it for himself- either way I loved him just the same.

"No."

"Why not?" he whined to the red head folding his arms over his chest.

"Because you want to save Sasuke and I want him dead."

A simple answer with a chilling effect.

"Yeah, but you probably don't know where he is," I pointed out to him, "Do you?"

The fact that he didn't reply was an answer enough.

"But we know where Itachi is," Naruto taunted as the falcon flew closer and closer toward me.

I watched as her graceful wings cut the air as the wind ruffled her darker feathers on her small head; her honey eyes scanned the area below as she looked for a place to perch.

"Itachi?" he cocked his head in confusion.

"Sasuke's elder brother," I informed him, "Where he is we will find Sasuke you can count on that."

Jiyrah landed on my shoulder, which startled me because of her sharp talons digging into the tender flesh on my shoulder. Gaara seemed to be thinking as he watched his beast nuzzle her head under my chin as if we had been life long friends this entire time.

Finally he spoke, "Alright I'll join you-"

He was cut off by a yes from Naruto.

"But," he contuined to warn us, "If you get in my way when the time comes to kill Sasuke I _will _make you regrett it."

I gulped as he said this- I knew he ment it with every fiber of his being.

He wanted revenge and nothing or anyone was going to stop him from having it.

So with his warning and Naruto's wave off of his warning we took off on what could be considered the best part of pur journey to save Sasuke and one of the happiest times of my life.


	16. Shame Carved on This Face

_**Note: **__So this is the halfway point of this story and I'm happy because now the romance between Sakura and Gaara increases greatly._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Fifteen:**

**Shame Carved On This Face**

We traveled for two days none stop as we made our way to the small village than Tsunade had ordered us to search for Itachi in.

Our orders were clear we were to stay in the town until we found him and then we were to follow his every move until we had found the location of the Akasuki. The mission itself was simple enough because once we found the Akasuki and we made a little bit of commotion then we would most likely find him. The most difficult part of it all was not to be recognized or seen by either the Akasuki or the Uchihas.

We stood in the middle of the town's market all three of our stomachs growling with hunger and our legs aching for the rest that they dissevered.

"So how much money do we have?" I asked my companions as I pulled out my pouch of money that was nestled safely in the middle of my backpack.

"Uh…" Naruto pulled out his own green toad wallet, which made me giggle at the sight of it.

I couldn't believe he still had that old thing- he had bought it when he was twelve- I would have bet anything that he had thrown it or at least had given it away by now.

"What?" he asked me rather loudly.

"I can't believe you still have that!" I laughed even harder as I pointed to the frogs gaping mouth in front of me.

"Why?" he asked, "What's wrong with it?"

Pulling myself together I said rather forcefully, "Nothing."

"Is that all we have?" I asked them with slight disappointment.

They nodded their heads all three of us seeing that we only had enough to eat on and get one hotel room.

I sighed taking the money from them and placing theirs with my own; it wasn't very much but it would have to do for now. I knew that if we were going to be staying in this town until we had located Itachi then we would have to look for a job tomorrow.

"Why do you get to keep the money?" Naruto asked as we made our way to a local inn on the other side of the street.

I didn't answer him; my brain was calculating what we should do.

Should we go ahead and try to start finding a job tonight?

Or should we wait and rest then look for a job?

"Its not very clean," Gaara stated as we entered the pub and he was more than accurate in that statement then you could possibly know.

The inn smelled like stale beer and grossly enough urine, but what poor creature's urine I didn't know and honestly didn't have the stomach to investigate.

A rather large woman dressed in very revealing clothes leaned over the old counter with a smirk on her lips, "Are you chaps looking for a place to stay?"

She was looking at Naruto and Gaara when she said that and she seemed to be ignoring my presences completely. Unfortunately neither of the boys knew what she meant by "place to stay" which made me wander how much they really got out.

"We're not here for that or anything for that matter we were just wandering if you could point us in the direction of a place to stay and somewhere to eat for the night," I stepped in thinking it was better for me to handle this than them.

She gave me a sidelong glance then said, "How much you got?"

"Enough for a place to stay," I growled at her, not wanting to answer her question out loud in the ear shot of the sleazy customers that they seemed to support.

"This is the only inn in the entire village kid," she turned back to the boys, and was about to tell them something when a tall, black haired man came up to the bar with an annoyed look on his face.

"Mai," he said as he ran his hand through his hair, "Where are those two waiters you told me to hire yesterday?"

Mai looked at him for a moment with hesitation, which seemed to make the man grow even madder with each second that she wasted, "You mean they're not here?"

"If they were," he said, I could only guess that he had not seen us at that moment, "I wouldn't be two employees down now would I?"

He glanced my way and his face seemed to brighten just a little bit making me feel uncomfortable; I could feel that the boys were starting to get what this place really was and were both tensing from behind me.

"Is this lovely young woman the new girl you promised me?" he asked her as he took one of my hands in his.

I jerked my hand away from him, and trying to control the rage that I felt bellowing deep inside me, I said, "Where's another inn that we could stay at?"

The man realized that I was not the girl that was promised to him by the bartender and heaved a heavy sigh, "There is only this inn and no where else. The village was and still remains to poor to build another one at this moment and time."

Naruto who had placed his hand on my shoulder, jerked me back so that both him and Gaara were now in front of me between the man and me.

"We want a room," Gaara informed him taking our money out of my hands and shoving it into the man's face, "And we want food."

The man blinked once, before finally getting that he had made the two mad by assuming that I was one of his working girls; I couldn't help but smile it felt good not to have to defend your honor when two of your guy friends would.

A fight started to break out at the end of the room right before what I only assumed to be a stage mostly because I had seen music performers on it right as we entered the entrance way.

"Mai," the man ordered as he began to head toward the two that was fighting, "Give them a room and some food!"

Mai shot me a dirty look- that might I add I return with as much venom as I could possibly muster- before leading us up a flight of creaking ancient stairs and down an musty hallway that smelled of boiled cabbage and sweat. She stopped in front of a door with the number three-fourteen on it, then said to us as she opened the retangular piece of wood, "The amount of money you handed to Aiko is enough for one room with two beds and three meals- one for the each of you."

She swung the door opened allowing us to enter the tiny room that held an even stronger scent of cabbage than the hallway had, "I'll be back with your food in a minute."

With that she closed the door to the room, knocking a picture off the wall revealing a tiny white square against gray.

"Sakura you can have a bed to yourself since you're a girl," Naruto offered me with a tiny smile, even he couldn't help but show displeasure to the room we had received.

"First thing tomorrow," I said as I slung my backpack to the ground and entered the bathroom to inspect it- surprisingly enough it was clean with out any rings in the porcine bathtub or toilet, "We need to find jobs okay?"

They both nodded their heads.

"Naruto you can have your own bed I don't sleep," Gaara told him as he dropped his gourd to the floor removing his back brace that supported his heavy sand, and undoing his maroon trench coat taking it off.

I couldn't help but notice a deep scar on his felt arm.

Naruto undid his own jacket tossing it to the ground with out second thought, then moving to his shoes he replied, "Thanks!"

Mai knocked on the door and once I had let her in she said, "Alright here you are."

She left us alone with a rusty cart with three different trays of food on it; we all began to eat the food she had given us slowly scared to ask what each dish really was.


	17. Happiness and Joy All Replace

_**Note: **__So I found the perfect poem for this story in my grandmother's poetry book and I've decided after I finish this story I'll post it for everyone to read. Also I created a account so if anyone wants to see my artwork then just go to rememberance91. I have one picture for this story right now but I plan to more up._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Sixteen:**

**Happiness And Joy All Replace**

I woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare that I was having to find Naruto sprawled across the bed next to mine.

I smiled as I watched him for a few minutes forgetting the gruesome dream that had plagued me not to long ago.

I looked around the room- after he had snorted and mumbled something about ramen- for the red head that was traveling with us to find that he was not in the room. I stood up stretching my arms above my head as I went to go to the bathroom.

Shutting the door I sighed, leaning against it for support, my body was weak from the dream.

I still remember what made it so frieghtening.

I was standing in the middle of a room with ebony curtains, and a square carpet pattern on the floor. My eyes zeroed in on the pattern for a few minutes as I silently traced the squares that entangled themselves together in different hues and colors.

All around me voices were echoing phrases at that moment in the dream I could not seem to understand.

I could catch small distinct words such as _death_ and _murderer_.

My dream self looked up from the carpet to a bed to the right of me, the bed had someone in it who had a single silk black blanket laid gracefully over them. I went to the bed side slowly my entire dream self shaking in terror, but not the kind of terror that you feel when your very life is in danger.

No this terror was different.

It was the terror that I had just lost someone very important to me.

The terror that I would never see that person again.

Tears glided down my cheeks as I raised my hand- my intention was to pull the silk off to see who was laying under it.

Even though it had been a dream and nothing more I could shake the terror that was left over as I stood breathing heavily in that small, cluttered bathroom with its yellow wall paper and white tiled floor.

In the dream my fingers touched the silk sending a new wave of terror through me; I felt its silky surface tickle my palm teasingly as I gently pulled the cover back from the person's bright blonde hair.

My heart sank- and might I add my heart hurts even now as I recall the dream and the events that took place after the dream.

His eyes lashes were pale from the powered they use on the dead, laying like a feather on a pillow, against his extremely pale cheeks and were closed lightly as his lips were creased into a frown.

More tears fell from my cheeks in the dream lightly splattering on his own nose and trickling to his closed mouth.

I stared at his souless shell, and I remember thinking in the dream that his frown seemed to show his fustration for dieing before he could become the hokage like he had often said he would.

I collasped against the bed the tears following harder than before, my head buried in the covers beside his hand.

I heard his child-like voice say in my ear, "Don't cry Sakura."

I looked up from the bed in hope of seeing him.

Across from the bed he stood there, twelve-years-old, grinning widely at me and next to him was Sasuke's twelve-year-old self, Kakashi, and my twelve-year-old self. My old team was there once again before everything had turned out the way it had.

Naruto's old self grinned, "Why are you crying?"

"Naruto?"

My voice was weak even for a dream.

"Yeah who else?" he demanded.

"Come on," Kakashi ushered me.

They were started to fade.

"Yeah," Sasuke said cooly with a smirk, "Come on already we'll be late."

"Wait!" I called at them stretching my arm out above his body, "Don't go!"

I jumped up to my feet, and was about to jump over the bed only to be stopped by a strong hand on my shoulder; I glanced over to see Gaara standing there with his hand on my shoulder stopping me from chasing after our former selves.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled at him the tears flowing down my face.

Strangely enough even though I was asleep I could feel everything in that nightmare, including his touch on my shoulder.

I opened my eyes, kicking off the door and staring into the mirror in front of the sink- to my surprise I had tears falling down my cheeks just from recalling the nightmare. Closing my eyes once again, bracing myself on the sink I allowed the memories to finish replaying in my memory.

Dream Gaara shook his head, as if silently telling me that chasing after the past was useless, I watched as a wind picked up blowing his body away in the form of sand.

Then my dreamed switched and I was standing in the middle of the room again staring at the squares as they tangled themselves around each other.

Though silently I was screaming for myself to wake up knowing what was coming next; I didn't.

Again to the right of me there was another bed with someone laying in it covered by another silk black blanket so that I couldn't see who they were.

My feet began to move forward once again until I was in front of the bed; my hands reached up, gently tugging the covers from the person's face. I watched the silk slide slowly off their hair, gliding over the out line of their nose and mouth. Instead of the blonde hair that I was suspecting there was crimson in its place.

I gasped in horror.

His eyes, much like Naruto's, were shut and the ebony rims had faded to a stormy gray the powder having the same effect on his eyes as Naruto's very own; I stared at his lips that were pressed together in a frown as if he was in deep thought about death and life and their meanings. In my dream, he didn't look exactly peaceful, but more or less lost in the deep slumber that he wouldn't wake from.

Tears fell from my eyes onto his closed ones slowly sliding across his cheeks as if he was crying as well.

Even though I knew in my mind that it was a dream, my heart still ached from the emotions that were created from it.

My dream self kneeled next to the bed taking his hand in mine and mumbled something to him that I wasn't able to make out; I don't know what I said but I do know that what ever it was made me cry even harder.

"Why are you crying?"

I opened my eyes realizing that I was no longer in the memory of my dream nor was I alone in the bathroom; I looked up to see the very same subject of the second half of my dream staring back at me in the mirror. He showed no real signs of concern for my tears- actually he didn't show any signs of emotion at all.

Never the less his reflection made me jump- he was the last person I expected to see.

I wipped away all the evidence of my nightmare from my cheeks using my arm, then once I had finished I said with a false grin on my lips, "I'm not crying!"

"Yes you are," he said not falling for the lie that I was trying my very best to make him believe.

He leaned down so that he could see my face better his nose inches from my own.

I turned my head so that I wouldn't have to look him in the eye- the memory of his lifeless body from my dream flashing cruelly in my mind, "Besides why does it matter?"

Another tear slid down my face and I cursed the fact that I couldn't seem to control my emotions.

Taking his thumb, he wipped it away from my cheek- that was the first time after Sasuke's betrayal he had shown affection toward me. I could see in those embellished sea foam green eyes that in his heart he was hurting; they showed me the emptiness he felt and recieved from the world.

From that moment I knew.

"Have you ever heard that saying that people's eyes are the windows into their souls?"

It was a rather stupid and some what childish question, but it was something that I often pondered about when I was own my own.

He blinked, pulling back some in thought, "No."

"Well," I said looking at my feet in my own embrassment, "There is this saying that says that when you look into someone's eyes you can see into their soul and tell who they are and what they are like."

He was silent, waiting for me to finish explaining my thoughts- that was something that I loved about him- he was always patient. That and there was something about him that allowed me to open up without fear of being made fun of or anything like that.

I mean I could talk to Naruto to, he was like a brother to me, but with Gaara there was something different- something else.

I can't say for sure what it was that was different- but it was there and I saw it.

"And when I look into your eyes," I paused trying to find the words that I was looking for, "I see-"

"A monster?" he finished my sentence his tone distant.

I looked up in shock; I hadn't thought of him as a monster since he tried to kill me when Naruto and he fought, but that was the only time.

And even then when he was so unstable- monster was not the word I would have picked as the adjective to discribe him.

Lost.

That would the adjective I would have used.

"No," I told him rather quickly trying to organize my thoughts into something logical and intelligent.

He looked up at with doubtful eyes- I guessed that he thought I was saying that because we needn't his help with Sasuke and Itachi, but he was wrong.

So very wrong.

I was starting to see his soul through those eyes, and it was something that was so complicated and so beautiful that it often took my breath away from me.

"Your eyes," I began again lifting my face up to that we were eye to eye, "Is so sad yet at the same time beautiful beyound any adjective in the human vocabulary."

He turned his head so that I couldn't see his eyes.

My stomach began to feel as if it was hallow and my heart began to beat against my chest threatening to explode inside of me- this was a feeling that he had often given me.

"Things like that are pointless," he stated looking back at me.

His eyes revealed nothing to me.

"Yeah maybe," I replied unsure what to say at that point, "But then-"

He leaned down even closer to me, "But then nothing, you can't see people's souls through their eyes."

For a moment- a brief moment- allowed my thoughts to trail away and the image of our lips touching in a kiss made itself apparent. That thought made my cheeks turn an even darker shade of pink; he must have guessd my thoughts because he turned his head away from me with a faint blush.

There was an awkward silence between us.

Through the door to the bathroom Naruto called, "Hey whos in there? Come on, hurry up!"

We both could hear him bouncing up and down outside the door.

"Hold on Naruto!" I yelled at him.

"Hurry up!" he whined banging on the door, "I gotta go!"

"Shut up!" I growled, "I heard you!"

I looked around the bathroom for Gaara to find that he had vanished only leaving a few grains of sand on the tiled floor.

Naruto banged on the door again.

"Okay, okay," I yekked back, jerking open the door to find him dancing around the room like a three-year-old.

"About time!" he huffed rushing past me, slamming the door shut behind him.

I climbed into bed, pulling the sheets up around me, and closed my eyes blocking out an images from my prior nightmare.

Things were starting to change, and at that time in my life I assumed for the better.

But like they say, every thing good or bad has an end.


	18. Dreams Blurred to Nightmares

_**Note: **__Thankyou everyone so much for your reviews! I like to see what other people, who don't know me, think of my works._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Seventeen:**

**Dreams Blurred To Nightmares**

Happiness.

Its a strange word thats meaning is so simple that it becomes complicated.

Even in times of pain and hurt we can experience these small rays of sunshine that we believe we don't deserve due to some error or mistake we have committed.

But maybe thats not the case.

Maybe its okay for us to experience joy in times like that because it saves us.

Maybe if we didn't experience happiness in those times we would die inside.

Or maybe I'm wrong and we aren't supppose to feel happy that we're alive, when others that we have lead and others that look up to us have died because of our own actions.

I wish I knew.

The truth is that I don't.

So when Temari and Kankuro are in their slumber and I was feeling happiness- I felt it.

I felt the guilt.

I didn't mean to become happy while we were in search of Itachi and Sasuke- it just happened.

I couldn't control my emotions-

Again.

I didn't sleep to well because of my nightmare.

I didn't really dream after I had gone back to sleep.

It was just this black void inside my mind that I couldn't shake.

So when I opened my eyes to find a pair of amber ones, I screamed.

I didn't mean to, it just happened before I could stop myself.

I hadn't expected to see Jiyrah on my stomach, her claws digging into the soft flesh of my stomach.

I didn't mean to frieghten Gaara and Naruto from the shivering howl that escaped my lips.

Jiyrah cocked her head to the side, her eyes piercing through my own, she made me wander if maybe you could really see people's souls through their eyes.

If she was able to see my soul I have often wander what she thought.

Was it beautiful?

Was it hidous?

Anyways, a whirled wind of sand made itself apparent next to my bed just as Naruto came storming out of the bathroom, where he had been taking a shower, with a towel wrapped around his waist and even in his nudity, with the expection of the towel, he almost looked serious enough to fight.

Gaara appeared out of his sand with the same look plastered on his face.

"Whats wrong?" the sand whispered questioned me glancing around the room for any signs of an enemy.

"N-n-nothing," I stuttered, "Jiyrah was sitting on me so when I opened my eyes she startled me."

"Is that all?" Naruto demanded, as if he was always the serious one and I was the one who goofed off.

"Shut up, Naruto," I growled at him as Gaara stared at me with his green eyes amused at me.

With in an instance flash Jiyrah took flight sailing toward Naruto who instantly held his hands up as a shield, dropping his towel to the ground.

I turned as quick as I could, buring my face as far into my pillow as I could; I heard him take off to the bathroom without a sound, slamming the door shut and yelled through the wood, "I can't believe that happened! Of all the people in the world why me?"

Then, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me because I heard Gaara chuckle, "Its safe now."

I couldn't bring myself to look up at him, even though he wasn't the one who had been exposed.

I felt him place his hands on each side of my pillow, that I had shoved over my head.

He said nothing as he leaned over me- I knew that his head was very close to touching my ivory pillow, and some of his hair had been possibly brushed against the pillow.

Feeling the need to break the silence I said in a rather loud voice, "That was-"

"SHUT UP!" Naruto yelled from the bathroom at the top of his lungs, "I BLAME THE BIRD!"

"YOU'RE THE ONE THAT DROPPED THE TOWEL!" I yelled back jerking the pillow off my head without even thinking about the boy leaning over me.

Gaara must not of had expected me to do this because he didn't move; our lips were inches apart- mine flushed red and his without any emotion. He blinked, and I- well I couldn't seem to make my body move. It felt so nice to be so close to him, to feel his breath, to be able to examine all his features down to his eyelashes. I wanted to embrance him, and I desperately wanted him to embrace me.

He leaned down a little closer to me, creating a feather light pressure on body, at that moment our lips were hardly a centimeter apart.

I wanted him to move closer to me but he didn't.

Something in his eyes told me that his mistrust for other people was not going to allow him to get close to me in those ways yet.

I wont lie to you- I was disappointed, but at the same time I was relieved.

The truth was I was scared of getting close to him, after all we had very different ideas on how to handle the situation with Sasuke- at the time I still cared for him even though he betrayed us. It wasn't the same emotion that I felt before-

No, it was different.

For the sake of old times and for the sake of Naruto I wanted him to come back with us alive and Gaara had already threatened to kill him and us if we stood in his way.

My heart, back then, was beginning to break like the glass rose music box that shattered on the night of Sasuke's betrayal.

The tiny cracks had already started to form, and would evenually break lose with the pressure.

Our eyes were locked on each other for what felt like days, but was really about three to four seconds, before he pushed himself up off the bed just as soon as Naruto exited the bathroom, not looking in my direction at all, and pretended to be studing his jack that he had picked up off the ground.

I glanced up at him to see that his face was crimson.

I giggled.

I didn't mean to, but I did.

"WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?" he yelled at me dropping his jacket to the ground.

I looked over at Gaara who was taking two messanger tubes off the falcon's tiny limbs, then said, "Nothing."

"SAKURA IT ISN'T FUNNY!" he pointed at me, "NO MATTER WHAT YOU CAN'T TELL HINITA, GOT IT?"

Naruto and Hinita had been seeing each other ever since he had returned to Konoha, after all it took us nearly six to eight months to get the information on Itachi and Sasuke.

They were actually a really cute pair.

"OH RIGHT LIKE I PLANNED IT!" I yelled back at him throwing my pillow into his face, "LIKE I'D WANT TO SEE THAT!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN _THAT_?" he screamed back at me.

"LIKE-"

Gaara cut us off holding the tubes up for us to see, "We have news from Konoha."


	19. Emotionless the Eyes Stare

_**Note: **__Thankyou everyone so much for your reviews! I like to see what other people, who don't know me, think of my works. Sorry i missed spelled Hinata's name!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Eighteen:**

**Emotionless The Eyes Stare**

Both Naruto and I looked at him as he handed one tube to the blonde on my right, and one tube to be keeping the third for himself.

I watched him a moment.

I didn't have a reason for watching I just felt like it.

I don't kow if anyone noticed and I didn't really care at that point.

Things were becoming more and more complicated with each day.

At the time, I just wandered if he felt the same about me- of course later I recieved my answer.

I undid the tie on my tube to find that two slips of paper fell out landing on my knees, one was from Ino and the other one was from the fifth hokage, Lady Tsunade- my sensei.

I still have both of the slips of paper tucked safely inside a velvet covered book that use to belong to Gaara; the book that I'm talking about was a child's story about a traveler who went around the world in search of a necklace called the Sand Stone.

You see in Suna there is a myth that says that the wearer of the Sand Stone can control vash amounts of sand, but more than that the wearer was unable to die when they were fighting for the one they loved.

It was presumed to be a legend and nothing more.

Still, it was a lovely book, and is a lovely book filled with beautifully colored pages; it was one of the few items he had from his former child hood, along with a tattered brown bear, and a small blanket that his mother had made him the night she had found out she was pregnant. He keep those choice three items inside a whole in his former room in Suna.

He told me about them one night while Naruto was off scouting out an area right before _it_ happened.

The paper- I memorized both messages because I have often gone to them to reread so that the happy memories created from that day wouldn't leave me- and the one from Ino read:

_Dear Bill-Board Brows,_

_How are you doing? I hope that your mission is going well! Bring our Sasuke back so that things can be the way they were before. Its been three months since me and Shikamaru hooked up by the way. Anyways send a message back and be careful._

_---Ino---_

I chuckled at her letter- we had become such good friends since he had left.

Naruto was steadily reading his letter that I knew to be Hinata's while Gaara's face was drawn together in concentration as he read his own letter; I remember thinking that he look so cute when his eyes were focused as hard as they were on what he was doing.

The next letter, the one from Tsunade read:

_Sakura,_

_I hope that you are well. We have recieved some disturbing information about what the Akashi are up to. I must warn you that both Gaara and Naruto are in danger- a serious danger. Do not allow them to leave your sight for no longer than ten minutes at a time. If you need any thing do not hestiate to tell me._

_---Tsunade---_

_P.S.: Do not tell the boys about what I have ordered you to do, I know Naruto doesn't want you to worry, and I'm sure Gaara doesn't either._

_P.S.S: Yes I know that you are traveling with Gaara thanks to Kakashi._

I reread the letter twice before putting both of them in my pocket.

The letter was troubling, but I knew my orders, and I followed them.

Naruto sat down on the floor as he stared at his letter in shock, his eyes almost looked like they were about to tear.

Walking over to him, kneeled down, "Whats wrong?"

His reaction to the letter had troubled me greatly.

"N-nothing," he muttered a small grin forming on his face, "nothings wrong."

"Well then," I said pushing him gently, "Then why do you look like your about to cry?"

"I'm not!" he snapped at me, rubbing his eyes with his arm.

"Naruto," I said more forcefully, Gaara had finished reading his note and was now watching us.

Naruto didn't look at me, he was just staring contently at the letter. His sapphire eyes revealed a more serious side to his personality I had rarely seen him display with the expection of battle- but that was not always the case.

"Naruto let me see," I snapped jerking the letter from him, he didn't fight.

Sitting down next to him I read it.

The news was startling and yet renewed my hopes in people.

Strange isn't?

I had never thought that it would be her to be the first out of the group of girls to bring new life into the world.

I also remember what the letter had said:

_Dear Naruto,_

_How have you been darling? Things in Konoha have been alright though I miss you, its so quiet when your gone. Things are well at my home, Father and I have rekindle our relations together just as you suggested. By the way, the question you asked me right before you left for your mission- if you want to then the answer is yes. I have some news that I think that you might want to hear. Actually I don't know exactly how to say this but that I'm pregnant. Of course, theres no doubt that it your child. Ino and Ten-Ten have been helping me and Neji is convince that I'll go into labor at any moment, even though Ino has beaten him up and informed him that babies aren't born after two months. Anyways dearest I have to go please be well and come home soon._

_---Yours Only: Hinata---_

The letter shook in my hands- I couldn't seem to make sense of the letter.

Not in a million years would I have guessed that they'd be the first of our class to have a child.

The very idea of a little Naruto running lose was mind blowing enough, but then I wandered about the question he asked her.

"Naruto," my throat was dry, the excitement slowly building in my chest, "What question did you ask?"

He looked up at me, his eyes couldn't seem to hide his happiness- a pure happiness, "To marry me."

I jumped to my feet, I couldn't seem to sit still.

Gaara's eyes were wide in his own shock- like me he didn't expect this to happen, but then at that moment he didn't know the second part of the news.

I was happy,

I was happy for Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto jumped to his feet as well beaming widely at me, you could see he was over joyed.

Now he had the chance to have a family that he could truely call his own.

Or at least we thought he had the chance.

Fate is a cruel thing.

A hateful thing that even now as I sit here and tell you my and his story I loathe to the core.

"Can you imagine little mini yous running around?" I asked him taking his hands in my own forgetting about what I had seen earlier.

"Mini yous?" Gaara asked, then he put it together and fell silent.

"Yeah!" Naruto yelled as he started to jump up and down, "I finally have my own family!"

He could seem to hold still, before me or the sand nin could say anything he jumped out the window, yelling down the street at everyone he saw and didn't see, "I'm getting married and I'm a father!"

Both me and the red head watched his as he disappeared on a turn, but we could still hear his voice.

I looked over at my comrade, "Can you belive it?"

"Hn," he replied folding his arms over his chest.

"I mean one Naruto is enough but mini Narutos?" I contuined on.

He didn't reply- I could tell something was bothering him.

"Whats wrong?" I asked him as I moved.

I wanted to know how he smelled, I wanted to see his chest rise and fall with his breath, I wanted to hear his heart beat, I wanted to taste his lips, and I wanted to touch his scarlet hair that was a mess on top of his head.

"I will never have a family," he muttered to me.

"Yes you will," I said- I admit that I was surprised that he had opened up to me.

"No," he replied, he stared directly in my eyes, "A monster can never be loved."

Before I could stop myself, my hand on its own will lifted to his cheek, "Your not a monster."

We stood there in that position our eyes locked on each other, then in a swift movement he place his forehead on my own, "How do you know what I am?"

"Because I see your soul," I mumbled, "And its beautiful."

He moved so that his lips were nearly touching my own, they were so close in fact that I felt the tiniest touch from them.

Just as he was about to kiss me, Mai- along with a younger girl with blonde hair, stormed into our room making us part instantly.

"We wuz wanderin' if ya could lend us a 'and," the woman stated rudely.

I could feel a deep blush on my cheeks and to my utter surprise so did he.

"Yeah," the younger one added, "We're short handed and Aiko wants to know if you guys would lend a hand for an exchange for two free meals for each of you and another free night."

It seemed that our luck had changed from good to bad considering that particular day's events.

Too bad that it was really an illusion.


	20. Drowning in this Pain

_**Note: **__Thanks for all the reviews._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Nineteen:**

**Drowning In This Pain**

It took us nearly an hour to locate Naruto who was practically bouncing off every wall or building he came across- and it took us nearly another hour to convince him to come back to the inn.

The excitement of his new family had him more hyper than normal.

By the time we had made it back to the inn we saw that a woman about the same build as the bar maid, Mai, yelling furiously at Aiko, which in my defense I didn't mean to ease drop on their conversation, but she was yelling so loud that I couldn't block her voice out of my head.

"Don't give me your shit!" she yelled, her hair was thin, and unruly, the same shade of the unnatural color orange that Naruto always wore, "Where are the people you hired?"

Aiko, after running his hand through his dark hair, met the woman's extremely dull brown eyes with his own gray ones as if deciding whether or not he should answer her.

When he didn't even try to make an excuse, she went on with her ranting, "They're not here are they? I should have known better than to leave your sorry ass in charge while I was away scouting for new talent! And what am I suppose to tell our costumers, huh? They're expecting a show tonight and we don't have one!"

"Beggin' 'our pardoned," Mai broke in, she herself looked nervous talking to the woman, who I had guessed to be the owner of the pub, "but wez 'ust hired some new people."

"Oh really," her voice was deadly as she whirled around to met the bar maid's gaze, which Mai instantly dropped to her feet, "Where?"

"Yes," Aiko said catching onto what his two employees had thought to do before he had, "There are our new workers!"

The woman looked at where he had pointed- needless to say he had pointed to us.

She walked over to me, circling the boys and me her eyes scanning our bodies with curiosity- the truth is I didn't like her eyes scanning over Gaara more than Naruto. There was something in those dull eyes that lit up as she went behind him and I didn't like it. In fact I wanted to rip those eyes out of their sockets, but with held my urge as she finally stopped.

"The two boys are fine for their jobs as waiters," she said as she went over to Aiko's side, "But the girl is just a little plain in some areas."

"What did you just say?" I growled, nearly pouncing on the woman only to be stopped by Naruto, who was holding me by the waist.

"Yeah but she's got fight," Aiko offered up hopefully as he looked at me.

My anger was boiling, if they had been implying the job that I thought they were, I would have taken them all out, it was a good thing that they wasn't.

Seeing my anger and the boys' anger the woman said, "Don't worry honey we only need you to perform on stage."

"Perform what?" it was Gaara's voice that had asked that question, and it sounded as if he himself was ready to kill.

"We need her to sing," Aiko said as he got up from where he sat, "And we need you two to be waiters, you think you can handle that?"

"Yes," I hissed at him.

"Good," the woman said as she got up from her seat as well, "Mai, Tokko I want you two to take her in the back and get her ready alright? You have exactly four hours to prepare the show starts at six O'clock, no sooner or later."

Mai, along with the girl Tokko, each grabbed my arms and began to drag me off to the back away from the boys that Aiko was talking to.

"Don't worry," Tokko assured me with a smile, "It'll be fine."

As we reached the back, Mai left me in the hands of the green eyed blonde who I assumed to in her early twenties, maybe her late teens. She took me to a back room with several mirrors and a large wardrobe full of performing clothes.

"So what's your name?" Tokko was extremely talkative as she threw out several dresses out of the wooden closet.

"Sakura," I was distracted some what by the idea of performing in front of a crowd, the woman hadn't even asked if I could sing or not, she had just thrown me to the job just as meat was thrown to a lion's din.

She must have sensed my thoughts because she had finally stopped throwing dressing out of the closet and was now looking at me, "Don't worry, it'll be fine! Nobody comes here for the music, they come for other _things_."

She winked at me.

I felt a blush on my cheeks, so I reached down for a dress that had caught my eye as if flew through the sky and landed on the floor.

The dress went halfway between my knee and my upper thigh, it was deep crimson with ebony, gold, pink, and silver flowers all over it- but what kind of flowers I didn't really know- it had long sleeves that slowly expanded as they went down the arm and the top was styled like a traditional Chinese dress.

It was indeed a very beautiful dress.

Tokko moved on to a dresser made of oak, again throwing several items through the air as she searched for something, "Anyways, so who are those cute guys you're traveling

with?"

I blinked at her as I picked up two long black leg warmers that, if worn on me, would have reached about two inches above my knee, "Cute guys?"

"Yeah," she said, placing a jeweled hair clip on the dresser, "That blonde guy and that hot red head."

I looked up at her, she had her back to me as she continued to rummage through a drawer, "Oh you mean Naruto and Gaara?"

"Are those their names?" she placed several different make-up items onto the top of the dresser where the hair pendent was, "They got girls?"

"Uh," I didn't want to tell her Gaara didn't so I decided to lie to her a little, "Naruto is getting married to a girl back home, and Gaara and I well-"

I stopped, wishing that we were really what I was implying; I could feel a blush on my cheeks and I was very glad that she hadn't seen it as she went over to several pair's of shoes in the corner.

"Oh," she said, she had sounded halfway disappointed, "What village are you from."

I knew I couldn't tell her the truth, but then what could I say?

If I told her the truth then the mission was endanger and I couldn't let that happen.

She didn't notice as I fell silent, and finally after deciding on a pair of deep crimson shoes with a high heel she said, "Alright try that dress on with those stockings and those shoes."

As I peeled away my clothes, I could feel her eyes gazing at me.

"How'd you get that scar?" she asked.

I knew exactly what scar she was talking about.

It was the very scar that came from the very wound I had received the night of Sasuke's betrayal.

I didn't have time to respond before her next question, "Are you a ninja? I wanted to be a ninja but I was never fast or cunning so they kicked me out of the academy so I came here to work. A girls gotta make a living honest or not."

"Yeah," I replied sliding the dress over my head.

I really didn't feel like talking that much anymore.

"Wow," she said as she circled my body, "That dress looks awesome on you!"

"Thanks," I was blushing from her praise.

"Come on," she said as she grabbed my hands and pulled me to a chair in front of a small mirror, "Let me do your make up and hair then you can practice your song!"


	21. Answers are Never Plain

_**Note: **__Long chapter and finally Part II complete and only ten more chapters of this story._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Twenty:**

**Answers are Never Plain**

Ten minutes before the show someone knocked on my dressing room door, and since Tokko had left I guessed that it was her.

But I was wrong.

I should have known not to trust Aiko.

I should have known by the way he looked at me that he had something planned.

I was just lucky that Tsunade had trained me well and that he had showed up when he had.

I opened the door to see a very drunk man with a wire-like beard grinning at me- I could smell the stench of alcohol on his breath along with the smell of sweat that his body was so deeply drenched in.

I went to slam the door in his face, but he had caught it with his hand his grin even wider than before.

I knew then that I was in trouble.

"What do you want?" I asked him angerily, I was fustrated with his intrusion and wanted nothing better than to knock him through the stone wall behind my door.

"Not much," he replied with a cocky grin, he had something in the glint of his eye.

Lust.

I knew then what he had planned for me.

He pushed his way into my room, knocking me to the side as he did so.

Honestly, I wander if the man thought that I was truely like the other girls; did he think I would give into his demands with out a fight?

That I would simply just give up it up to him, someone that I didn't even know the name of?

Well, if those were his thoughts then he was mistaken.

I, Haruno Sakura, the student of the Fifth Hokage and one of the top in my class, was not going to lose this fight- at least those were my thoughts as he came closer to me drowning my nostrils in his scent. The bastard must have honestly thought that I was going to allow him the pleasure of my body, of me. Its funny to think about in away, because honestly I could have killed the poor maron if he hadn't showed up.

Why Gaara was coming to the back I really don't know.

Anyways, the man pressed his body to mine, a stomach-wrenching smile on his cracked lips.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned him as his hands snaked to my waist.

"Do what?" he questioned me dangerously.

I knew that my eyes were danergous, and my voice full of venom as I allowed the words to escape my lips, "If you try anything I'll kill you, do you understand you pitiful excuss of a man."

He frowned at me, "What did you say?"

"You heard me," I said darkly, "I'll crush ever single bone in your body if you try anything, understand?"

He grabbed my wrists, slamming my body against the wall behind me, "Like you could girlie. I've paid and now I want whats mine."

"Then," I said as my knee met the soft flesh of his stomach, then taking my elbow I jammed it in the spot where his neck met his head, "You came to the wrong girl!"

After a few minutes the man pushed his body off the floor, his forehead bleeding from the contact with the floor, he growl, "You stupid bitch, look what you did!"

My anger sat in then.

"Oh I'm sorry," I replied mockingly, "Let me help you with that!"

I pulled back my fist punching him right in his crooked nose, his large body went flying into the mirrors on the oppsite wall shattering them under his wieght. I stormed over to him, kicking him in his side as I turned his body over so I could see his face. He was bleeding badly, but I didn't see any life threating injuries though I doubt I would have healed him if I did. I placed my foot on his throat so that he couldn't breathe and hissed at him as dark as I could, "How many girls have you and that bastard been raping and placing them here to work?"

He smirked, coughing as he did.

I felt someone grabbed me by the back of my dress and sling me away from the bleeding man into the oppsite wall. When my back collided with the concert wall my vision turned white, I felt my knees hit the floor from the force I had been slung at and the rate of my speed as I went flying through the air. The next thing I felt was someone grabbed the front of my hair, that Tokko had left out of the bun she had put my hair in and the jeweled clip, and jerk me to my feet forcing my eyes open.

"Looks like you did a number on my brother," Aiko growled as he shook my head from the hair he had.

"Yeah well what can I say?" I whispered with a cocky grin, "It was easy."

"Listen you little-"

He was cut off by a cold voice, "I suggest you release her."

I strained to look over the pimps shoulder, and I saw him.

At the sight of his red hair, of his teal eyes embellished with black, of his handsome features, of his tattoo my heart swelled with joy; I knew I was safe which was more than what I could say for the other men in this room.

Aiko jerked me as he turned around, his brother was finally on his feet and was glaring at me with pure hatred- I could only think of one thing to do and that was to give him a sweet, nonchalant smile. His face began to turn shades of red from his anger.

"I said," the rogue ninja growled as he stepped forwards some, "Let her go."

"Or what?" Aiko mocked as he glared at my savor.

"Or I'll kill you," Gaara sent his sand toward Aiko, gripping the flesh of his neck.

I stretched my hand down toward the end of my stockings that was closest to me, trying to get to the kunai I had hidden in it. I couldn't seem to get close enough to my weapon because of the position Aiko had forced me to stand in. Gaara must have guessed what I was doing because I felt grains of his sand go into the entrance of my stockings handing my choice weapon. I flashed him a quick smile as I hid the weapon in the sleeve of my dress.

I was waiting for the right moment to attack.

What happened next I didn't expect.

Aiko release my hair slinging me backwards where his brother wrapped one arm around my neck, and the other around my own arms to keep me from squriming out of his reach. I cursed loudly, but thankfully I had my kunai in my sleeve.

Gaara eyes meet my own, and knew then what he was thinking.

I just had to wait.

His sand flew at Aiko, surrounding the man's body, and instantly crushing it; the other man who held me released my arms long enough for me to pull the kunai out of my sleeve, jamming into his throat. His blood slpattered onto my face and hair as I pushed my weapon deeper and deeper into his throat until finally he fell to the ground with a graggling sound escaping from his throat.

I was partly sorry that both men were dead, but then I wasn't.

There was no telling how many girls they had raped and pimped out to make money, they desevered what they got.

Still, I hate to see a life ended even if it was a wasted one.

Gaara stalked over to me, his own face smeared with the blood of Aiko and his eyes clearing lusting for more.

"Sakura," he began; I was over joyed at the sound that his voice made when he said my name, it- my name I mean- never sounded better than when his lips moved to say it, "Are you alright?"

"Yes," I replied a little shaken by my experience but at the same time my mind was calculating what to do, after all there was a whole inn full of prositutes that needed to be taken care of not to mention the orange haired woman.

His hand, before I knew it, was on my cheek, his fingers massaging my smoothe skin under them. I looked up into his eyes to see an emotion they were expressioning that I had never seen him show before- it nearly melted my heart from the very sight of them. He leaned forward, just as I had silently wished for him to do so many times, and his lips connected with my own.

Any discribtions or adjectives to discribe our first kiss would be insufficant- there is no word in any language to describe the pleasure of it,of the passion, of the lust, but more of the love.

At first it was slow, a gentle thing like a small breeze, but then it increased.

Instead of that small breeze that it started with it turned into heated passion, a day in the middle of summer.

It was more than a gentle peck, our lips parted as we embraced each other, my arms were wrapped tightly around his neck as his strong ones pulled me closer to his body wrapping themselves firmly around my waist.

He was mine.

And I was his.

For a few minutes our tongues wrestled with who was dominate, but finally I allowed him to take over the kiss- I knew he wanted to.

I don't think that we would have parted as soon as we had, but just as the heat was becoming even hotter between us Tokko entered the room and screamed. Her scream was loud, and even slightly annoying. I pulled away from him, which I recieved a growl of protest, and ran over to the tremble girl who had dropped the fruit she was carring.

"Tokko," I began, but then what could I say?

I knew what it looked like.

A room covered with blood, her bosses body crushed and his blood smeared over the walls, the body of her possible rapist laying on the floor covered with blood, Gaara and I making out, covered in blood, in the room covered in blood, with two bodies covered in blood.

I went toward her embracing her as I did so, she struggled for a few minutes before finally breaking down in my arms.

Just at the same time Naruto arrived, his face covered with sweat and his body blanketed with cuts and bruises, "I located Itachi."

I released Tokko, "Where?"

"He was here," he huffed, "But left- I tried to follow him but lost his trail. What happened here?"

"Nothing," Gaara replied darkly.

I knew what was on his mind.

"Alright," I said as I pulled Tokko to her feet, "Naruto take Tokko to the missions center here and get a jounin to take her home. Write a message to Lady Tsunade to take care of her until we get home, tell her to train her for me, then meet Gaara and me at the exit of the city."

"Right," he nodded as he took Tokko's small arm, "Lets go!"

"W-wait," she stammered grabbing my own hand.

For some unknown reason I wanted to take care of her, to make sure she'd never be taken advantage of by any more men like Aiko or his disguisting brother.

"Go with him," I commanded her, "He'll make sure nothing will happen to you I promise."

"Yeah!" Naruto added.

Tokko allowed him to take her out of the room, her eyes on me the entire time.

Someone trusted my judgement.

Again.

"So what are we going to do?" Gaara asked me once they had left.

"Take care of this shit hole," I informed him as I went for the door.

"Wait," he said as he pulled me back toward him, "I want to give something."

"What?" I asked, shocked at what he said.

"Here," he handed me a pendent with a sun made of gold and two single zet black stones that were oddly enough transparent in the center of it- I had never seen stones such as these.

"What is it?" I asked him as I place the necklace around my neck.

"Sandstone," he replied simply, "When ever your endanger and I'm not around my sand will always protect you."

I smiled up at him, "Thank you."

He scratched his hair, looking away from me with a blush on his cheeks, "Your welcome."

Taking him by the hand I said, "Now lets go get these bastards."

"Yeah," the bloodlust came back into his eyes, "By the way I like that dress on you."

"Thank you," I replied as we went out the door.


	22. What A Beautiful Disaster

_**Note: **__So this is the last part of Glass Roses, I hadn't intended to make it rated M but then well things change. Just so every one knows that when I get to the rate M part it wont be tasteless or dumb if you get my drift. Anyways I plan to up-date this story twice every day if I can mange, though I think that one day I'll have to up-date three times. My plan is to finish this story by August 12, so that requires two chapters a day; my plan is to up-date once in the morning and once in the noon or at night, just so every one knows._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Part III**

**Chapter Twenty-One:**

**What A Beautiful Disaster**

We burned the whore house down to the ground once Naruto and Tokko had left us.

He must have known thats what we were planning because he didn't even question us as he left with her. Together, Gaara and I, released all the girls before killing all the people who were involved in the human trafficing circle, and burning the building down.

It didn't bother me much.

I didn't like to see people die, but these people desevered to die.

They desevered every thing we did to them, and as it turned out the entire village knew about the building but did nothing about it. We learned that everyone in the village with the exception of the children and stray animals were involved some way or another in the dealings, so we burned the village down. We sent Naruto to take the girls, Tokko, and the children over the next village so that we could destroy the hell hole without the lost of any innocents.

After that we, Gaara and I, set off to track down Itachi while we told Naruto to just follow our trail

We didn't want to risk losing Itachi.

I don't think he minded much though, I think he wanted to send Hinata some gifts for the baby.

Naruto was my best friend, my brother, but honestly I was glad that he was gone for a few days- every day he was gone it kept him out of danger and allowed me and Gaara to spend our time together freely.

If I had known.

If only I had known the out come of what was about to happen to us.

If I had known that no matter what happened I was both going to lose the man I loved, and the man I considered to be my brother to the man I had called a friend- well I don't know, maybe I could have stopped it.

Maybe I could have saved them.

Maybe we could have been a family.

I justed wanted the things the way they were.

I justed wanted everyone to be happy.

I justed wanted him.

If I had known that the outcome would have been what it was then I would have never asked Naruto to promise to bring Sasuke back; I would have made Naruto promise to just leave him alone or to kill him.

I would have just let him be.

But thats not what happened and theres nothing anyone can say to change that.

So what do you do when you know that all your friends and your lover is dead because of you?

What do you tell the fiance of your best friend its your fault hes dead?

What do you tell the child of your teammate that his father his dead because of a promise you made him make?

What do you tell your own child that her father is dead because of you?

What do you tell yourself as you lay down in an empty bed for two?

You tell yourself that after every storm there is always a clear sky, and the sun is always shinning no matter the amount of distruction that the storm has caused and has killed.

If it hadn't been for my daughter's birth I would have died a long time ago.

I would have taken my own life.

She brought me back to this hell of a world.

I live for her and only her.

I see her father in her crimson hair and her teal eyes just as much as I see my brother in his son's sapphire eyes and blonde hair.

I them in the children.

Thats why I wanted to do this-

For the children and for their fathers.


	23. Falling Further, Faster and Faster

_**Note: **__I'm tired and here is chapter twenty-two!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Twenty-Two:**

**Falling Further, Faster and Faster**

We had been traveling for several hours before we, Gaara and I, decided to make camp, which we rarely did.

He knew though, that unlike him, my body required and often demanded rest. He never became impatient with me or ever angry with the fact that I needed my rest, in fact he was the one who pushed me to sleep.

I had finished marking several trees, like I did every few miles to let Naruto know that we had passed this way, when Gaara exited the forest caring several dried branches in his arm. There was a strong gust that passed through the trees bring with it the smell of rain along with the scent of wet bark and leaves. I sent a worried look Gaara's way to see that he had dropped the soon to be useless branches and stated simply that he was going to find us some shelter.

Walking over to the branches he had found, I gathered them in my arms, knowing that if a storm was coming then we would need some form of heat. I glanced back at the way we had came with what I knew to be worried eyes, I wanted Naruto to find us soon so that I knew he was safe. But he wouldn't come until the night after the one that I'm telling you about now.

Thats when the down pour started.

The rain was cold and heavy against my skin as I ran through the woods trying my best to find a cave or Gaara or both but when I didn't find either I went back to where I had marked the trees to find someone I hadn't suspected to find.

He stood there in the middle of the marked trees, staring at the last one I had marked with my kunai.

I dropped the wet branches in my arms, as I said his name, "Sasuke."

He turned around his crimson eyes met my own emerald ones- he didn't even seem surprised to see me.

"Sakura," my name on his lips might have had sounded sweet to me at one point, but now it no longer did.

There was another person that my name on his lips was dissired even more than him saying it. There was another person that I wanted to be touched, to be caressed by other than my former teammate. There was another person that I wanted to embrace so tight that our heart beats became one instead of two. There was another person that I wanted, and that from the way he acted towards me, wanted me back in return.

"What are you doing here?" I mumbled as he walked toward me.

For every step he took forward I took one back until finally his body was pressing my body against a tree. I didn't like the way he was pressed against me, I didn't even like him being so close to me. I wanted Gaara to come back so badly that I was practically screaming his name in my mind. The down pour was so heavy that not only was my hair matted against my skin but so was his.

"I was," he said coldly as he leaned closer down to my face so that our noses were inches apart from each other, "Looking for Itachi I hadn't suspected you to be here, so where is Naruto?"

I looked out of the corner of my eye hoping to see Gaara, but it was no use he wasn't there.

"I can't hear you," he grabbed my throat and squeezed it some so that I couldn't breathe- I'll be honest with you I was scared.

I was scared that he would kill me, I was scared he would kill Gaara, I was scared that he would kill Naruto when he found him, but mostly I was scared because I knew from the look in his eyes that we were never going to bring him home.

He was a lost cause.

He released my throat and contuined on, "I heard that he father a child with that freak of a girl Hinata."

"Shes not a freak," I growled trying my best to sound frieghtening.

"Come on Sakura," he cooed, "Its just you and me right now theres no reason to be hostile."

I said nothing, my emotions swirling inside my mind.

"I also heard that a girl fitting your discribtion, a boy fitting Naruto's, and another boy fitting that sand villages monster-"

I cut him off, I didn't want him to call Gaara _that_ word, "Hes _not_ a monster!"

"Ah," he mumbled as he came very close to my face, "I see so its true about what I heard, you and that kid, Gaara right, did destroy that village further west, well theres some news. So tell me _friend_ are you two an item?"

"An item?" I blinked trying to make some of the water drops that landed in my eye leave, "Why do you care?"

He moved away from me with a wicked grin, "I don't."

Just as he was about to say something a loud crackle of thunder exploded from the sky forcing both of us shield our ears, by the time I had open my eyes Sasuke had gone and no sooner had I glanced around had Gaara came out of the brush. He looked at me, seeing that I was shivering and wet he said, "I sensed some chakra that wasn't yours coming from here, are you okay?"

I smiled at him as I walk toward him, "Yeah I'm fine."

"What was the chakra?"

"It was nothing," he looked at me before nodding his head.

I knew he didn't believe me but it was worth a shot.

I don't know whether or not I should have told him the truth, but something inside me told me that if I were to tell him who it was realy he'd go after Sasuke and would most likely die considering that his sand had been turned to mud by the water and would need to dry out before he could use it again.

"I found us a cave," he stated plainly.

I nodded my head and followed him through the woods until we arrived at the entrance of a rather warm cave, when we entered it I noticed that the floor of the cave was covered in moss instead of stone. There was no need for a fire, the cave was naturally warm and wasn't at all leaky like most caves were. I placed my back pack against the wall of the cave while removing my shoes, shine guards, and head band from my body.

Gaara took off his goard placing it to the side, and removed his trench coat. He sat against the wall and closed his eyes as if he were alseep, but I knew he wasn't. He couldn't sleep it was against his demon's nature.

I walked over to where he was and sat down next to him and closed my own eyes.

"What?" he asked me.

"Nothing," I stated with a small smile.

I opened one eye to see that he was watching me.

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he replied.

I giggled.

He smiled.

Then it happened.

He leaned over and kissed me full force on the lips.


	24. Flight on Ebony Wings

_**Note: **__Thanks for all the reviews!!!_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Twenty-Three:**

**Flight On Ebony Wings**

Like our first kiss this one was filled with passion.

When we pulled apart I smiled up at him as the storm outside became fiercer and fiecer, making me jump from time to time when the claps of thunder would shake our cave, causing a number of rocks to fall from the cieling. He pulled me closer to him and for a few minutes simply stared into my eyes as if he was trying to decide something that he wasn't sure about.

There was something that I had been wandering about myself, so I asked him, "Gaara?"

He leaned against the cave wall closing his eyes again, "Yes?"

"When we find Sasuke and Itachi, and well you know- what will you do?" I looked at his face trying my best to guess what he was thinking but he revealed nothing to me, I could only guess that he was thinking about his answer to my question.

"I don't know," he finally stated as he down at me his eyes puzzled by my question.

"Well," I focus on my feet as I tried to pull some of the moss of the cave floor up by my hands, "I was wandering if maybe-"

I was cut off by another clap of thunder, and the sound of someone's chuckled.

I stopped talking to see if he had heard it, but when he showed no signs of alert I contiuned on thinking that maybe it had all been in my mind, "Maybe you should come back to Konoha with Naruto and me."

He looked at me for a few minutes before leaning down and kissing me again on my lips an action that I took as a yes from him considering he never said that he wouldn't come back home with us.

I ran my hands through his messy hair, as he wrapped his strong arms around my waist.

I wont go into detail about what exactly took place that night considering that is not what we are here for, and quite frankly that is very personal for me and is none of your buisness. What I will say is that it was one of the best nights of my life, my best and last night with him alone.

If only I had known what was going to happen the next night then maybe I could have stopped him from fighting him, maybe I could have made Naruto promise to leave Sasuke alone so that he could have had a chance to meet his son.

I shouldn't have been so selfish as I had been.

I should have helped them more.

I should have done something, anything.

The next morning I woke up to find myself wrapped firmly in his arms, his forehead pressed against my shoulder and his hair lightly touching my shoulders each like a soft kiss from his lips. It felt good to be there in his arms, it felt right- more right than anything else in the world. We had become one that night, and I knew that he was the one and only one that I wanted.

And I knew that it was the same for him.

After all in the middle of it he had told me that he wanted me to be only his and no one elses- it wasn't much of a proposal but its the effort that counts, right?

It was love, plain and simple.

You can shake your head and say it had been hormones all you want but you hadn't been there. You didn't feel the passion, the love, the lust that our bodies had been swept with during that storm. We had been in love and thats the truth. To me there is no age limit to love, you can fall in love at any age and you just know when you are.

Heres something I've found out personally:

With love you just know, and you never doubt.

With love there is no time limit.

If you're truely in love with someone than there is nothing that can stop your love for each other, not death, not life, not other people. Its a bond that you can never break, its a bond that you can never ever shatter no matter what happens.

Love is different than any other emotion a human can ever experience and we experienced it with each other.

I know we did.

I realized it more when his lips were pressed on the tender skin of my shoulder blade, when his individual hair strands kissed my shoulder blade, when his teal eyes opened and for once they smiled a silent smile that was meant only for me.

Thats the moment I knew.

Thats the moment he knew.

Thats the moment we both knew we knew.

Sitting up, I brushed my hair out of my face, and smiled down at him considering he didn't move from the spot he was lying in. Thats was the first time I ever witness a smile from him, a true smile that truely meant he was happy. I leaned down and we kissed again.

When I tried to pull away he jerked me back down to the mossy floor, and leaned over my nude form.

I laughed as he smiled wider, apparently pleased with himself.

But then his smile melted into a frown and he said to me, "Someone is coming."

We both stood up, quickly getting dressed and walking out of the cave into the damp forest.

There he stood, a smirk on his lips, "So its true then?"

"Uchiha," Gaara growled setting in front of me.

"This," Sasuke stated pulling out his sword, "Isn't between me and you I have things with her that need to be dealt _with_."

His crimson eyes bore into my own, but Gaara shifted in front of me so that he blocked Sasuke's view, "You will deal with me."


	25. Once Was, a Sinsful Sting

_**Note: **__So I haven't up-dated in a while and I'm sorry for that. I've just been majorly busy with all kinds of things and personal issues that its just crazy._

_**R.I.P. Uncle Willie**_

_**R.I.P. Aunt Peggy**_

_**R.I.P. Aunt Lyndia**_

**_Dreams_**

_Dreams are only dreams when you're away_

_Gray clouds only fill the day_

_Dreams are only nightmares when you're away_

_The happiness cannot and will not stay_

_Dreams are only pain when you're away_

_Memories long forgotten only lay_

_Dreams are only dreams when you're away_

_And there is nothing to keep these tears at bay_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto story line._

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**Chapter Twenty-Four:**

**Once Was, A Sinful Sting**

Days like today are the days when I wander back on the past. I'll sot here alone, or in my office and ask myself questions about those days. As you can tell by now, those days are what haunt me at night when all are asleep but myself. They were the happiest and yet saddest times of my life. And when I'm alone, and sometimes when I'm not, I wander what would have had happen if I had made a stronger effort.

Could I have saved them?

Would that effort had any effect on the outcome?

I hate myself for being so weak then, for not being able to stop him from doing what he had done. If I had been the person I am today, maybe I could have saved them, maybe I could have saved him. Maybe he would be here with us now and maybe she wouldn't be so alone.

I mean what kind of person am I to lose them?

When it comes down to it, down to the very core, its all my fault.

I could have stopped them, I should have!

He deserved someone better, someone other than me. He deserved someone so much stronger, so much prettier, someone who would have stayed by his side to the very end. He deserved someone who wasn't so afraid to let the past go for the sake of the future. Someone who was afraid to embrace the future with open arms, and allow its warmth to wrap around her body through faith.

When we were standing outside the cave, I should have ended it there. I should have ended it there and then.

But I couldn't move.

My doubts and fears froze my limbs as I stared at those raven eyes all the while he had moved in front of me to protect me. The way he was using his own body to protect my own…

God!

Its all my fault that they are all gone!

And the thing that kills me the most is that no one even blames me, but me!

It would be so much easier if she hit me, cussed me, or drew blood. If she would have don't that, inflicted the pain I deserved instead of…

Of just sitting there, silently staring at the stone marker cover in the ever green moss and small pink roses…

She should have blamed me! Its all my fault I couldn't save them. But she just sits there by herself, lost in her own thoughts, wishing that he were beside her no doubt.

It breaks my heart.

I remember that day perfectly, more clearly than I really wish I did.

"What do you want?" Sasuke had snarled at Gaara.

I could feel the hatred seeping off of my dessert dweller as he glared at the other in front of us. I had felt as if any hope pf stopping them was a futile mission that only a fool would venture to do.

But still I should have at least tried.

"To kill you," Gaara growled, the cork of his sand melting as the tiny grains snaked their way out of the gourd's mouth.

"Is that so?" Sasuke smirked darkly, "You and your tramp? Don't make me laugh!"

"Don't call her that!" he warned, his voice made me tremble though he was defending my pride and honor that Sasuke had managed to trample on.

"Don't threaten me," Sasuke hissed, his eyes blank.

"Sakura," Gaara's tone changed slightly at the mention of my name, "Get out of here. Look for Naruto."

"What?" his words stunned me, I didn't think leaving him to deal with Sasuke was the best idea, after all he had vowed to kill him.

"You heard me," his tone had become more urgent and I dare say, more fearful.

The tone he had used confused my, twisting my thoughts together and tying them in knots. He wanted me to leave, and I knew that the reasons were accurate and justified, but my legs didn't seem to want to move.

"GO!" he yelled at me using a hateful tone he had never used toward me since the day Sasuke had killed his sister.

"Gaara…" my voice trailed off as I glanced in the direction of the forest with hesitation as heavy iron grips began to pull my heart toward the ground.

"If you try to leave," we both heard our enemy growl, "Then I will kill you Sakura."

I gulped glancing at the one I had fallen in love with and the one I had fallen out of love with, lost in the very emotions that governed me.

"Go," Gaara repeated more quietly, "I'll be close behind you and as soon as we find Naruto we will go after Itachi."

The tears began to swell in my eyes as a heavy weight bore down on my mind, "I don't want to leave you behind."

He reached his hand out to my cheek, cupping it gently, and lifting it up so that I had no choice but to look at him, "I wont be long so go ahead and go, and after all I want to get home as soon as possible."

Searching in his eyes trying to understand his meaning I asked quietly, "Home?"

He nodded his head, his red hair falling into his eyes as he did so, "As soon as we are done here I want to go with you back to the Leaf Village, that is if you want me to."

I nodded my head in reply I couldn't speak.

"How touching," Sasuke mocked his hand reaching for the hilt of his sword.

Kissing my forehead, Gaara said for the final time, "Go."

I nodded my head and took off toward the trees as tears streamed down my face. I didn't want to leave, but he wouldn't have let me stay. There was nothing for me to do but to find our other companion. I could hear the sounds of battle behind me, but I knew that I couldn't look back.

I crashed through the brush and kicked off the thick green branches as I made my way through the woods.

Help.

That had been the goal.

And that goal would have never been reached.

In the corner of my eye I could see a shadow coming up on me very quickly, and at first I thought that it was Gaara, but I was wrong. The shadow vanished from behind me and then reappeared in the form of Uchiha Sasuke.

I slide to a halt, my breath quick and heavy.

"What's wrong expecting someone else?" he asked me darkly.

"Where's Gaara?" I yelled at him.

"Dead," he replied to me.

"I don't believe you!" I hissed my senses telling me that three figures were in the near by trees in hiding.

"Its true," he said as a reply.

"You don't have the skills to kill him," I rebutted angrily.

"And yet I'm here and he's not."

"You are not, never have been, and never will be strong enough to kill someone like him," I knew that my statement had been a low blow, but I couldn't help myself.

It was then, in that moment, I realized how much I truly despised the boy that stood in front of me. I hated him with everything in my being, because he was the source that had caused all our problems.

He had been the one to betray us.

He had been the one that abandon us.

He was the one that had killed our allies.

It was that moment that I knew I was over him and his actions toward us. It was that moment I realized how much I loved the other and how much I wanted to be with my crimson haired companion. It was that moment that I knew that beyond a doubt, the world have been better off without the likes of him in it.

The emotions that he had held at bay for so long had been released and his eyes flashed before he slammed me into a tree by my neck.

The pain that shot through my body had been nothing compared to the knowledge that I had struck a cord in him.

A smile cracked my lips as tears of pain and hatred slipped down my cheeks and chin falling onto the hand that he gripped me with.

I had broken his shield.

I had evoked anger into Uchiha Sasuke and I was proud.

Glancing up at the sky I saw a large falcon soar gracefully above our heads and I knew that the hyperactive blonde was extremely close.

The war between old friends, new enemies, siblings, old enemies, and new friends had been started and the ending of our missions and vows was soon under way…


	26. New But Never Dying Flames

_**Note: **__I have a new idea for a story that I'll be posting today so every should try and check it out as soon as they can. The only character I really will be using will be Gaara and it's placed in the real world. You'll just have to read it for more because it's very complicated and hard to describe._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline._

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**Chapter Twenty-Five:**

**New But Never Dying Flames**

"Its over, we both know that," I warned him, the grip he had on my throat tightening with every word I spoke, "The end to this nightmare is near."

"And what makes you think that the ending is going to be a good one?" he asked me darkly his anger evident in the tone of his voice.

"And what makes you think that it's going to be a bad one?" I rebutted.

While the two of us had been talking I had already started on a plan to get his hand away from my windpipe. It was evident that I wasn't able to make him let go by force; I had to shrewd, cunning to win this battle. In my hand I began to form my charka and once I had collected all that I needed, I struck.

He hadn't seen that coming.

And that's what I counted on.

"What did you do?" he growled at me all the while clutching his stomach where my palm had made a connection.

I tried to kick him away, but as I had expected from him, he was to fast for me. I glared at him, not wanting to answer but then finally I said, "I forced you ab muscles to start separating away from in each other."

"You what?" I could tell he knew exactly what that meant for him if he didn't find someone to heal him, and heal him soon.

"Don't act so surprised," I mocked a face that resembled someone who had just been insulted, "After all I did learn from the best. And I know that we are both aware that in about an hour your muscle will be finished tearing themselves apart and as for you, well, it might not kill you, but it'll hurt like hell and you wont be able to move for a very, very long time."

Before I knew what was happening I felt someone's fist connect with my lower right check, turning any clear vision I had into a giant blur of blackness. I allowed my reflexes to control my body as I collected my thoughts. It was as if I was fighting from a distance. I could feel myself block an attack, while at the same time, rebutting another, or trying to make an advancement only to be stopped by a blow to my stomach. I knew what he was trying to do, and I was trying my best to counter him.

The logic was simple enough so that anyone could understand; he was trying to end the battle as quickly as possible so that he could go find someone to heal him before it was to late. My strategy was someone less forceful, but I considered it just as brutal.

Just as long as I could make the battle last longer than an hour he would be defeated, it was just lasting through it that was the trick.

I found myself falling through the thick branches from one of his hits to my head. Everything hurt, and my body was screaming for some relief. As I was tumbling I felt myself slip into the darkness of sleep, or perhaps it was death.

I could see my childhood flashing before my eyes.

The first day I ever meet Sasuke and Naruto to the day we were officially Team 7. The vision of our first mission together flashed before my eyes and the first night we slept on the hard forest floor as a team, as friends. The next image was the one of the night he left us for Orochimaru and how I laid awake crying for nights on end.

I closed my eyes as if to shut out the images of my past, even then they still burned a hole into my soul.

But they didn't stop as I crashed on a rather think branch and continued to fall to the earth.

I saw the day Naruto laid in the hospital bed, wrapped in bandages and yet still promising to bring him home. I saw the night that Gaara saved me from Orochimaru and the day that Naruto returned home from his year of training. I saw the days we spent eating together in the ramen shop with Kakashi Sensei and Lady Tsunade.

I just kept falling.

Falling down toward nothing, nothing at all.

The last image I remember was the face of my sand prince. His red locks that laid messy on his head, those teal eyes that were filled with curiosity but no longer pain, embellished by the black of his father's sin.

That when I felt it.

Inside of hitting the ground I felt someone wrap their arms arounf my body, so that I was safe and not serevely harmed.

"Gaara?" I whispered softly before I realized what I had said.

I felt someone place their forehead on mine and chuckle softly, "Not quite," Naruto replied.

I cracked a small smile up at him as his spiky blonde hairs gleamed in the bright sunlight, "I heard noises so I came to check out what was going on. I knew that we'd need help with this mission and sent word to the village. You're pretty beat up Sakura," he paused then asked, "Where's Gaara?"

"I-I don't know," I responed closing my eyes again from the pain of smashing into the branches.

"Well, he'll be along," he informed me with a wide smile.

"You were always there for me," I told him in a low voice as tears slide down my cheeks, "And-"

He cut me off with a laugh, "And I always will be, you're my friend."

"Yeah, best friend," I corrected him genlty.

"Best friend," he repeated as if tasting the sound of the word in his mouth before adding, "You did well against him, by why don't you let me take it from here?"

I nodded my head, "An hour."

"What?" he questioned as he helped me sit on the ground.

"He has an hour, after that his stomach muscles will tear away from each other and he can be stopped."

"I didn't think that it would come to this," he mumbled.

"Niether did I," I agreed as I made to stand up only for him to push me back down on the forest floor.

"Stay here, he's mine," his eyes began to change from their sapphire blue to crimson.

"Naruto," I called out to him before he could leave.

"What?" he asked his fangs baring as he talked and his hands turning into deadly claws of the demon.

"Don't loose yourself this time," I said, then laughed nervously, "I'll want my best friend by my side when we go home to Konoha."

"We?" he asked slightly confused.

"You, me, and Gaara."

"Right!" he nodded before jumping up toward the many branches of the trees.


	27. Wanting To Place That Blame

_**Note: **__So this is Chapter Twenty-Seven! I'm so excited and sad at the same time. I kind of want this story to go on and on, but it can't. Oh well! Three more chapters and then its complete!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Naruto or the Naruto storyline_

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Chapter Twenty-Six: 

**Wanting To Place That Blame**

The thing about regrets is that no matter how hard you try; you can never get rid of them. They are etched onto your soul, carved on your face, painted in your dreams, and reflected in your eyes.

You can never forget.

You can never let go.

You just lay there, in the darkness because that's where you are, and you can't even cry.

No.

Tears are not permitted to fall.

Why should you allow yourself the relief of crying when you're the one to blame?

Why should you get the satisfaction of releasing all of you pain at once when you haven't even earned it?

Why should you be able to move on with your life when your own actions caused another, someone you love or someone who loved you, to not move on with theirs?

Yes.

I'm sure of it.

I don't deserve satisfaction.

I don't deserve anything.

But…

Death.

I remember healing the wounds that had been inflicted on my body by Sasuke, and I remember listening to the shattering of bark as someone hit a tree. To the noise of battle between two who had been best friends, who had been brothers. I remember the smell of the forest, of the trees and of the wind. I remember the clouds peaking down at me as if to question why I was there.

Most of all I remember to urge to find Gaara, and to get him to help Naruto defeat Sasuke once and for all.

That was my plan.

I knew that if I could do that then we could go home and it would be the end of everything. We could live peacefully together in the village and do things together that didn't involve a cave or death for that matter.

I wanted so much.

So very much.

I wander if it was wrong of me to want such things?

Was I selfish in my request for a happy home?

Should I have been ashamed of all the things my heart desired us to do?

Perhaps, but none of that matters now.

What difference does it make?

They're not coming back…

I remember stumbling through the trees in my attempt to find him. I was weak and exhausted but I knew that if I could find him then everything would be okay again. I was heading for the spot that he had ordered me to leave because of the appearance of Itachi and whoever was his companion.

When I reached the cave the trees were scarred with burns and slashes of either metal or sand turned into a deadly weapon. I moved through the fall tree branches in search of him, but I couldn't find him anywhere.

I called out his name and he made no reply.

I called it out again and I heard a groan from under one of the many tree branches next to me.

I moved the fallen tree limbs as fast as I could move, fearing that it might be Gaara and that he was injured. By the time I had moved the final fallen branch, I found the opposite of my hopes.

It was Itachi's partner.

Kisame looked up at me, his eyes nearly rolled in the back of his head from pain, and blood smear over his body. He didn't even seem to notice me for a minute so I spoke first, hoping I could get information out of him, "Where's Gaara?"

He coughed up some more blood before saying to me in a strain voice, "You mean Ichibi no Shukaku host?"

"Don't call him that!" I cried, "Where is he?"

He grinned at me, "Itachi killed him."

"You're a liar!" I screamed at him.

From beside the cave I heard someone call out my name, turning around and leaving the horrible beast to die, I went to who was calling me. I knew then that it was him, but the tone in his voice that he had used worried me.

It was weak and in pain.

I saw him leaning against the cave, his head back, and blood soaking his clothes and the grass around him. I ran over, and I knew when I saw his wounds that the chances of his survival were small, but they were there.

And that was hope enough.

"What happened?" I exclaimed as I place my hand gently where is wound was.

He placed his own hand on mine before saying between each breath he took, "I killed Itachi, but not before he injured me."

"Where is his body?" I mumbled trying to focus my charka to heal his wounds.

God!

If only I hadn't used it to injure Sasuke, maybe then I could have helped him more, or maybe if I hadn't healed my own body for my own desire to get rid of the pain caused by the battle.

He could see that I was exhausting myself, and his body began to shiver as his internal organs started to shut down.

"I can stop the blood flow," I informed him, "But I can't close the wound and you'll be stuck here until I can get help or rest some."

He nodded his head in understanding, time and luck had to be on our side for him to live.

"Then rest," he closed his eyes, his hand still holding tightly to my own.

I placed my head on his shoulder, the exhaustion weighing in on me like a ton of bricks weighing in on a paper house. I could feel the darkness of sleep gripping my body as his shallow breaths moved through his chest. The wind blew across the forest floor, and the last thing I remember hearing was him saying, "I love you."


	28. Watching It All Fade

_**Note:**__ Well this is Chapter 28, and I may go ahead and finish Glass Roses either today or at least by this Friday. Hence, no up-dates on my other stories until I finish this one. And also it is my goal to get 100 reviews for this, so please review because I only have 79 of the 100 only 21 more to go._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't Naruto or the Naruto storyline._

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Chapter Twenty-Seven: 

**Watching It All Fade**

I remember the dream I had as I laid there, my body against his, my soul connected to his own dying one. The dream was a pleasant one, and I would give anything in the world just so that it would come true, anything.

I dreamed that I stood in the middle of a kitchen decorated in white marble with veins of blue coursing through it. On the stove a pot sat boiling over as I through my panic tried my best to stop it from over flowing.

I could hear laughter from me from across the shelf that separated the table in the dining room and the kitchen. I glanced over my shoulder to see Gaara rushing toward me with a smile on his lips. He grabbed a towel off the counter and head for the pot that I tried to subdue through all of my attempts.

Across the floor three small children, a blond little girl with celestial blue eyes, a boy with crimson locks, and another boy with jet black hair and dark eyes, ran behind us in a race to see who could touch the living room couch first.

I yelled over my shoulder for them to stop racing in the house only to hear another voice, a much older voice that I knew to be Naruto's, reply to leave them alone and have a little fun.

I released a growl at him, daring him to question my authority again, instantly shutting him up as he played with the long Hokage robes.

Once Gaara and I had defeated the boiling pot, by turning the stove off, we carried the pot together to the table.

The table was set with the finest porcelain, with gold lining on the edges and scarlet roses painted in the center of grape vines. The glass cups were made of crystal, the white wine glowing from the stream of light that shone ever so brightly through it. Silver forks, knives, and spoons sat elegantly on cream-colored napkins next to the plates.

The centerpiece of the table was a elegant glass rose that was almost three feet high and the very tips of the leaves, thorns, and rose petals had been dipped into gold to match the chinaware that my mother had given to use on our wedding date. Two candles made up the outside of the centerpiece; neither had been lit since out fourth anniversary and was to be lit this day of our fifth.

On the table was a verity of foods from a chicken with golden brown skin to various vegetables of beans, and among others; to the fruits that the gods had once consider to be so sweet that they became dessert instead of a side dish. On the counter, because the table was full of food, sat banana pudding that I had concocted for my guest.

Calling the children to the table, we all sat down to eat together as a family. My two senseis, Kakashi and Lady Tsunade, sat next to each other as the new Hokage and his lady, Naruto and Hinata, sat across from us with daughter next to them. Hinata's belly was swelled with pregnancy as she stared at the food on the table with polite, wanting eyes. Next to them sat the dark haired boy that had been running in the kitchen along with his own father, Sasuke, who seemed to be at his old self. Next to them sat Ino and her family and then the table circled back to Gaara and I and our only son.

The room was filled with laughter and talking of family matters and once it was over Naruto and Hinata took our son to spend the night with them so that Gaara and I could have some time alone.

When we sat together on the living room couch he leaned down to kiss me and when our face was less than an inch apart he vanished.

My eyes, at that point, snapped open to someone shaking my shoulder roughly. The person that came into my vision was Tsunade and Kakashi themselves their eyes filled with an amount of worry that I can't begin to describe to you.

"Sakura," my medic teacher began, "Where's Sasuke and Naruto?"

At that point I jumped to my feet with energy that I didn't know I had, and once I received a nod of approval from the one I had been lying on, I bolt for the woods. There had been no time to explain, an hour was almost up and I needed to see if my attacked had worked or if it had failed.


	29. Everything That We Made

_**Note:**__ So I going to finish this story today and I'm so happy and yet sad at the same time. I expect some serious reviews so that I can get to a 100! Anyways so yeah, here we go! _

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Naruto or the Naruto storyline._

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Chapter Twenty-Eight: 

**Everything That We Had Made**

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, ignoring the protests of the new arrivals until I began to see the damage that their battle had inflicted on the forest around them. The trees were scarred from their weapons and some had even been all the way sliced through.

There were bloodstains everywhere and I felt my body began to tremble, not with exhaustion but with fear. I knew that the chances of neither allowing the other to live were very slim. I couldn't help but think that I was losing everything and everyone that was dearest to me in a single hour.

I had no idea how much I had been right.

I heard someone groan, and turned around to see my friend, the very friend who had stood by me the entire time of Sasuke's betrayal. He had blood smeared in his hair and his face and arms were sliced and bleeding. I ran over to him, knowing very well that the chance of his survival was so minute I nearly wept right there.

I kneeled down beside him and took his hand in my own, not wanting him to be alone at such a time and said in what I knew to be in a strained voice, "Hey."

He turned his head; closing his eyes from the pain he felt coursing through his body and replied, "I'm s-s-sorry."

I felt my heart crack, "For what?"

"For not k-keeping my promise," he stammered on.

"Don't worry about it!" I tried to laugh but only tears could seem to escape down my face and land on his washing the blood down with them.

He looked up at me with a smile, a smile that I'll never allow myself to forget. It was a smile that only could be remembered through the heart and not through the mind, "How come you never did go on a date with me?"

I felt myself laugh at that, "Why are you thinking about a stupid thing like that at a time like this you idiot? Besides what about Hinata and the baby?"

He rested his head in the crook of my elbow, his amber hairs tickling my skin as he spoke, "That's true, but it would have been nice…"

He trailed off so I asked, "It would have been nice what?"

Jerking his eyes open, and I couldn't help but notice at how dim they were becoming from their usually brilliant blue, "It would have been nice to see if we'd had turned out, ya know?"

I was exhausted by then, I pulled him into a tight hug and said gently, "You wouldn't have wanted me."

"That's not true, I've always wanted you, even when we were children."

"Naruto," I whimpered the tears nearly choking me, "I was never worth it."

"Yes you were," he insisted, "But you wanted Sasuke so I decide that…"

Again he trailed off and again I was forced to ask, "That?"

"If he made you happy then I would bring him to you, but then you fell in love with Gaara."

I closed my eyes as I listened to his confession.

"I wanted you to be happy and I knew that you'd ever be happy with someone like me."

"Someone like you?" every second that passed made my heart break even more than it had ever had before.

"Someone not worthy of your love."

"That's not true, don't say things like that!" I hugged him tighter.

"I'm glad though," I could feel his heart beat slowing down by now, "I really do love her, its just that I wander."

"Naruto," I was crying so hard now that my vision had blurred from the tears that stained my clothes, "I do love you-"

I felt his heart give out before I could finish my sentence, and his body grow limp in my arms. I buried my head into his chest and cried harder than I had ever done before. From a few yards away I heard someone chuckle and I released him and stood up. My anger pulsed through my body as blood pulsed through my vines. Walking over to the one who was laughing I snarled at him while grabbing the front of his shirt and holding my fist up, "What the hell do you think you're laughing at?"

"The two of you are pathetic," Sasuke answered, his own blood smeared into his face, hair, and clothes.

"You're the one who's pathetic," I released him as I remembered that I had left Gaara alone.

Just as I turned around I heard him say, "You never had it in you to kill."

At my feet laid the very sword he had used so often against us, I picked it up and turned around, "Never had it in me huh?"

His eyes grew wide as I plunged the very weapon he had used to create so much chaos in his heart. I heard his blood gargle in his throat before he finally lay limp, and lifeless pinned to the tree he had been against.

I headed back to where I left Gaara to find Lady Tsunade just gaining her footing from where she had been kneeling on the ground. They jounin looked at me, their eyes filled with sorrow, sorrow I knew that could only mean one thing. Kakashi walked toward me, his eyes taking notice of the blood stains on my clothes, and he started, "Sakura I-"

I made to push past him only for him to grab me and I yelled at him, "Let me go damn it!"

"Sakura," he tried to embrace me, but I didn't want to be hugged.

"No!" I could hear myself screaming, screaming for them to stop lying, screaming for him to let me go, and them screaming for Gaara to come back, and my last scream was for Naruto to come back.

At that point they hadn't known that he had gone on, and Kakashi asked me, "Naruto's?"

I could look at him, and I managed to wiggle my way out of his arms and before I knew what I had done, I threw myself over Gaara's lifeless body.

"Its not fair," I wailed, "They're all gone! I'm the only one left and I don't want to be!"

I buried my head on Gaara's neck, which was still warm, and cried even harder than I had just moments before. Then I glanced at the cliff that was only a few yards away, thoughts of suicide swirling in my head. I ran toward it, in visioning myself falling into the depts. Tsunade caught me just in time and wrapped her arms around my body to stop me from moving; I collapse into her as she caressed my hair.

Kakashi vanished and when he returned I was still crying in her arms. I heard him tell one of the jounin that Naruto and Sasuke were dead and that someone had finish Sasuke with his own sword. I knew that their eyes were on me I could feel it.


	30. And Then The Door Closes

_**Note:**__ Well this is for sure the last chapter! I'm glad that everyone likes this story so much and thank you for all of the reviews. If you like this story then you should read __**Moonlight Tears**__ because the style is the same, well sort of, but it's from Naruto's point of view. My main goal of this story was to see if I could actually make someone cry through my writings. The greatest writers evoke emotion from their readers and that's what I'm trying to do._

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Naruto or the Naruto storyline._

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Chapter Twenty-Nine: 

**And When The Door Closes**

I remember arriving at the village three days after Naruto and Gaara had died.

Their bodies had been brought back with us on black stretchers and covered, out of respect, with heavy black wool blankets. The funeral was two days after we came home. Kakashi and Kurenai were the ones who told Hinata about the death of her fiancé with Kiba and Neji in the room for moral support. We took Sasuke's body home as well so that he could be buried next to his father and mother, but we never did find the remains of Itachi.

On the way home, we stopped in Suna to see if they wanted Gaara's body, but they wouldn't even allow us to pass the gate. It was decided that he would be buried next to Naruto as a village hero.

The funeral day came quicker than I had ever imagined it would. The entire village, much like when the Third Hokage had passed on, dressed from the soles of their feet to the tips of their heads in black. Two large painted portraits hung above the cots that their bodies had been laid on, and the finest silk lace laid gently on their bodies.

The entire event almost seemed like a horrible nightmare that I would wake up from just as soon as I opened my eyes, and they would be there, alive and well. It felt like a pratical joke that Naruto somehow got the entire village and Gaara to play along with.

But it wasn't a dream.

I stood between Lady Tsunade and Kakashi while Hinata was safely nestle between her father and Kiba with Neji at her back for comfort. She held a bundle of eleven ruby red roses with a ebony one at the center. I could see from the tears forming in her eyes she wanted to cry but was unable to do so.

My parents, like a few of the other adults from the time of the Fourth Hokage, had refused to come to the funeral that honored a pair of murderous demons.

When the time came for us to place the flowers on top of their bodies, it began to drizzle. Hinata and I were the first to place the roses on them, and I had allowed her through on final string of hope that they would sit up, to place the very first flowers on them. She placed the red roses on Naruto, and the single black one on Gaara with shaky hands.

I couldn't blame her.

I shook too.

Then it was my turn.

The rain began to pound on top of us as I shakily made my way to where they were, so perfectly still, so perfectly silent. I could feel the uncontrollable tears swell up and then fall down my cheeks mixing with the tears of rain the heavens had released that day.

I placed a crimson rose on top of Gaara and an amber one on top of Naruto, roses that seemed to me to symbolize each of them as best as any flower could.

When I turned around I could see all of them, their eyes on me as if watching and examining my very soul, and then I looked to the skies at Gaara's falcon. My vision grew hazy as I turned back to the two people who meant more to me than life itself.

I dreamed then.

I dreamed a vision that I'll never let go.

I dreamed I was walking through the forest of Konoha and the sun's light was bouncing off of the grass and leaves that laid shattered on the ground. My bare feet felt good as I passed through the soft grass and the satin ivory dress I wore seemed to flow in a wind I couldn't feel.

Up a head stood Sasuke leaning against a tree in a crisp white shirt and pants, his feet bare like mine, as I walked up to him he could easily read the confused expression on my face.

He smiled at me, a smile I had not expected to see, and said, "I'm sorry Sakura."

I cocked my head in even more confusion, but before I could respond he said to me, "I'll be seeing you."

He hugged me and then vanished in the air.

Again I walked on until I saw Naruto in front of a tree, his head bent forward as if he was sleeping. I placed my hand on his shoulder, and he instantly woke up. A large smile appeared on his lips as he said, "Well I guess this is it! The final goodbye we'll ever have."

"The final?" I could hear my voice crack as I asked, more tears swelling into my eyes.

"Don't cry," he jumped to his feet, embracing me in a hug and then whispered into my ear, "We'll see each other again, and then we wont have to say goodbye!"

"You mean when I die of old age and I'm all wrinkled and ugly!" I wailed on.

He laughed, "That's not possible," and then pulling away from me, he added, "He's waiting further ahead."

I nodded, not expecting him to lean down and gently graze his lips against my own before he himself vanished just as Sasuke had.

I walked on again until I saw him sitting in a tree, like the other two he was dressed in all white, and when he saw me he smiled and jumped down, landing nimbly on his feet.

"I didn't think-" I fumbled with my words.

He smiled wider and leaned down, kissing me fully on my lips. The warmth of his body, of his breath, on mine was so welcoming and relieving that I can't explain it.

That's the thing about simple pleasures; they're so complex that in words the simple adjective doesn't seem to begin to cover it.

When our kiss parted he said, tucking my loose hairs behind my ears, "I do love you."

"I love you too."

"Don't cry," his tone was soft as he rubbed my tears off my cheeks, "I'll always be with you, I promise."

"I know," I mumbled in his chest.

"I wont leave you're side," he placed his hand on top pf my heart and added, "I live in here."

Then he and the forest faded and I found myself in a hospital bed two days after the funeral.


	31. Shattered, Like Glass Roses

_**Note:**__ Final chapter and then the AFTER THOUGHT! By the way don't forget to post reviews!_

_I know this is random but, I found this orginal story I had based some of the concepts of this version of **Glass Roses **on that I had wrote I while ago. I started reading it and there were somethings I thought I should add to this one. These two poems are ones I wrote for the orginal story._

**_Glass Roses so fragile and delicate,_**

**_Dancing upon the soul of the forgotten,_**

**_Here lie their questions in mind take,_**

**_If we open them early, and lay them upon cotton, _**

**_Will they shatter?_**

**_These fragile flowers?_**

_This is the other one:_

**_Death is the end,_**

**_But do not fear,_**

**_Even though many tend,_**

**_Because soon we will be together again._**

_For those who have already finish reading this story just know that the only other thing I add was the new ending so you don't have to reread this chapter if you don't want to._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Naruto or the Naruto storyline._

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Chapter Thirty: 

**Shattered, Like Glass Roses**

That day, my heart broke into a shatter pieces.

There was no one for months that I would speak to.

My heart was like that of the rose that shattered on the little girl's floor the night Sasuke betrayed us.

Shattered.

The pieces were like the shards of glass that shattered on her floor.

I knew that no one would be able to fix what had been done, but in the end I would find that two could began to heal my heart.

Four months after Gaara's death I found out that I was pregnant with his child, or so I thought.

Five months after I found out I had twins, one boy and one girl. I named my son Gaara in honor of his father, and I named my daughter, Kiaza.

My son, who was only three minutes older than my daughter, had the hair of his father and my own emerald eyes while for my daughter she had her father's crimson locks and her father's teal eyes.

Eyes that I adore.

Hinata had a son of her own, his hair was that of hers and his eyes were a celestial blue from his father side of the family.

I watch over them from my office, and I know that in the future Naruto's son and my daughter would most likely become very close.

Five years after Naruto's death Kiba asked Hinata to be his wife, but she refused him. He continuously asked her for her hand every day until exactly three years after his first proposal and she said yes. They had three more children, one daughter and three sons, together.

Lady Tsunade and Jiariya decided that they were both to old to bother with a village any more and vanished together in the mist three years after the anniversary of Naurto's, Sasuke's, and Gaara's death.

I hear from my jounin that they travel the country side by side almost as if they were a married couple.

Rock Lee has often proposed to me, but I turned him down each time, my heart staying loyal to my one true love. He then later married a woman from the sand village and is said to have three sons.

Ten-Ten and Neji both decided that they wanted to start a family together and they have one child, a little girl by the name of Risa.

Ino married one of the ANBU Black Ops 'Root' member, who we all know the name of Sai, and they both serve under me as separate branch leaders. They have two daughters and one son.

Shikamaru, at the death of Temari, vanished a year after I returned home from the mission I was sent on, and was never heard from again.

I full fill the dream that Naruto held so dear to his heart as the second woman Hokage in our village.

Sometimes at night, when the children are asleep, I walk around the village.

When the twins turned sixteen, I made such a walk to clear my head when I stumbled across a small kitten with teal eyes and the fur of a usually golden tabby cat. He couldn't have been more that five weeks old at the time, and he reminded me so much of Naruto and Gaara that it was uncanny.

I picked the small creature up in my hands and said to him, "What are you doing out here?"

He made no reply and I felt my heart break in the familiar places.

He was so young and innocent but at the same time he had already been mistreated and abandoned by the world for things he could help.

"Well," I informed the small cat, "I'm taking you home with me and I'm going to call you Garuto, ha ha."

Garuto is almost twenty years old now, and he has been my companion for many years now. Old and withered by time like me, but as strong and keen as he ever was.

When I first met him, I would have never guessed that he was one of those lost children that were swept with grief and pain, one of those who were abandoned or had been beat, or endure some other form of mistreatment. His story is not one of rainbows and butterflies or the happily ever after that we have come to know as we snughled in our pillows with sweet dreams in mind.

No.

But, I will nver forget him.

That boy who reminded me so much of glass roses, that was once perfect, and now is no longer with his missing pieces and cracks.

He will forever be in my heart and prayers, even if he is imperfect and broken...


	32. After Thought

_**Note:**__ YAY! I'm done! NOW REVIEW PLEASE AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Naruto or the Naruto storyline._

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After Thought: 

**Glass Roses**

_Broken, Beaten, and Battered_

_A Beautiful Soul- Shattered_

_Words Create No Cure_

_Voices Remaining Unsure_

_Demons Remain Unslain_

_An Aching Heart's Pain_

_Tears Fall to the Ground_

_The Soul Remains Unsound_

_Feeling- Like a Fleeting Dove_

_This Thing They Call Love_

_That Can't Be Seen_

_Replaying One A Screen_

_In This Darken Hell_

_Where This Soul Fell_

_Shamed Carved On This Face_

_Happiness and Joy All Replaced_

_Dream's Blurred Into Nightmares_

_Emotionless Eyes Just Stare_

_Drowning In This Pain_

_Answers Never Plain_

_What A Beautiful Disaster_

_Falling Further, Faster Faster_

_Flight On Ebony Wings_

_Once Was, A Sinful Sting_

_New But Never Dying Flames_

_Wanting To Place The Blame_

_Watching It All Fade_

_All That We Have Made_

_And Then The Door Closes_

_Shattered- Like Glass Roses_


	33. Note

**Okay sorry that I have not been able to up-date any of my stories (turns out writing a novel is way easier to talk about than actually do). I wanted to provide an sample of what I'm writng so below is the prologue and chapter one. For those of you who have read Glass Roses yes the style and peom are both the same. Just so there is no confusion there.**

**Sorry about the grammar and there is some Italian. Remember this is only the rough draft and not the final copies so try not to kill me too badly.**

**Just be honest in what you think and lemme know if you like it.**

**This is totally orginal work here.**

**Last thing I was debating over whether or not to write a new Naruto fanfiction and a Supernatural one. You be the judge of it and let me know.**

**Naruto: **

**Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Naruto, Sakura, and Sai are all sent to an alternate world to help a stranger kill a half-breed monster. But, its hard though to kill something who beauty causes Venus to shudder in pure jealously. And even if they were able to kill this unwanted creature, could they? After all how can one kill the child of a demon and of an angel? Sacrifies have to be made to preserve the world, even if the sarcifice is ones own heart.**

**Supernatural:**

**Kiera is twenty-two years-old, and she lives in the Buleo Thorn Mental Hospital for the** **Ill, in Oklahoma. She was born on a Indian Reseveration near the state border, through the help of her grandmother, prietess of their tribe, she discovered at a very young age she could see demons, speak to the souls of the dead, and even talk to angels. Driven "insane" by her deadly gift, Dean and Sam must rush to her aid to stop the swarm of demons that have come to claim her life.**

**ENJOY!**

**Prologue:**

Sinners & Saints

"_911, what's your emergency?"_

Sometimes when bad things happen, the receiver of this bad thing, whatever the bad thing might be, lose their hope in whatever benevolent force that they had once looked upon for help.

"_Oh my God, someone's shot her! Someone has shot my daughter, my baby girl!"_

The storm, which they are in, forms into a harsh one; advancing itself into a tiny hurricane spinning wilder and wilder out of control. Tearing and splintering apart all things that happen to be in its path.

"_Ma'am, Ma'am please calm down! Who has been shot?"_

And as the tears of the sky fall, no pour- down onto our bodies, running across our cheeks into our nose, slipping into our throats, we start to drown. However this drowning sensation tends to be a fluid one, at a slow pace.

"_My daughter, she's been shot! Someone shot her! How could this happen?"_

And we feel everything.

"_Ma'am please calm down, can you tell me where you are?"_

The gasping- much like the one of a flopping fish on the edge of the river bank on a hot summer's day- fast, full of panic and regret. Struggling, an automatic compulsion has to go on, because we, as human beings, challenge the notion of giving into our mortal bonds.

"_4251 Bolivar Drive, what should I do? What should I do? Oh god she's not breathing! Why isn't she breathing?!"_

And the idea of dying, of releasing our immortal soul from our mortal body, signifies an unforgivable sin to us. Materializing to the mind, the biggest flaw of us humans, whether dead, alive, living, or dying, we fight the "good" fight when we want to live even though in the end it ultimately kills us, and we allow ourselves to live a pointless, meaningless life when we want to die.

"_You're going to have to calm down Ma'am…"_

Our turmoil, our storm, grows more violently as the seconds pass. The lightening flashes ripping the onyx sky apart as the wind pushes against us, trying with all its might to knock us down, killing our spirit, dreams, and aspirations.

"_Are you even listening to me? MY DAUGHTER HAS BEEN SHOT! There's blood everywhere, I don't even think she's breathing!"_

When the rain indicates to us that the end claims abruptly comes forth, and death tightens it's beastly claws clutching our tender, soft throats, leaving it's victim, our humanity- our mortality, breathless, and inches from death the hurricane dissipates.

"_Are you sure she's not breathing? Check her pulse."_

That's when it all ends.

"_What do you mean check her pulse?! All of her blood is one the floor she has no pulse!"_

Our body, frozen with despair, stiff with a sense of death, lays motionless on the ground, mud covered from the rain, and surrounded by salty tears of the pain. Immediately in the middle of this breaking twilight, during all this torture, a seed had been sown**.**

"_I'm sending an emergency team over right now, please hold."_

As our eyes open, blinking from the burning light of the breaking dawn, we realize something; the tiny seed that had been planted blossomed, into a perfectly beautiful rose.

"_Ma'am, Ma'am are you there?"_

The notion of it not able to maintain a steady pour rationalizes in our minds: eventually the sky had to quit crying; hence we, ourselves, insist on releasing all the pain in our heart, and stop crying too.

"_Yes, I'm here."_

But even though our flower of hope has bloomed, it does not necessarily reinforce the common idea that we have physically survived our turmoil. It does not mean that we can return to our lives as that had been before the storm, this hurricane. Because how can we return to our lives of we have already died during this chaos? What if death, contrary to popular belief, is our salvation…?

"_A team is on their way, I'll say on the line until they get there."_

Death and salvation what a funny combination…

"_Thank you! Please hurry!"_

Chapter One: 

Broken, Beaten, Battered

In my line of work I find that most of humanity, struggles with letting go of that which they struggle so fiercely fight to hold on. They fight so hard against the tides of age and of death that they do not even realize that these temporary fountains of youth mean nothing, absolutely nothing. In the end their bodies will be lain down to rest in the Earth's core and their mortal shells will mold themselves within all life, the plants and the animals, the bodies of oceans and seas, and even with the sky. It is the cycle. It is the way of the world; it always has been and always will be.

My sight as an entity beyond death reasoned what any other immortal would: life on Earth influenced the afterlife, think of it as a silent insisting on where you wanted your final destination to be, if you will. Permit me to explain to you that I could never conceive to make sense of the mortal struggle to stay alive since I, myself, developed a distant relationship with the living since I had been alive. Even though I had once been mortal too, the result of my death changed me into a man who viewed human life as a pirate would view a port inhabited by enemy soldiers through a telescope: with eyes full of distain.

But perhaps I jumped into my ideals and rationalizations before I introduced myself properly to you, please do not consider me rude of this transgression against you. Try to understand that when I begin to tell this tale, to whisper the events of her story aloud, I find myself trapped in the past, reliving what I already have lived like an old movie replaying on a screen. My name is Mors, and believe me when I say in telling you our story I am honoring you in the highest possible way. I reinforced death; if I may venture to say I have many names in my native tongue I am known as Morte, or death, but mostly I am known as a grim reaper. Why am I telling you this you may ask yourself? Simply put because as I sit here on my perch- which as you can see barely meets the requirements of a brass bed post, waiting for the last breaths to escape your dying lips I was reminded of her. There is no doubt in my mind that you are confused- I can see it in your dimming eyes. Shall I explain how the memory of this particular girl was stirred in my mind? Yes? Well then I shall. She and you, you and her have the same taste in music. Odd is it not, so many years after her I find you here in your room with that song vibrating in the air, the beats pounding against the wall? It is an odd song to sing when you are upset, and yet she did every time she wanted to cry or run away she began to hum it and then slowly melt into the aspartic rhythms. However I will digress and move forward in my tale since we still have a few minutes before your soul is released from your body.

To tell this story I must go back to the first night I made my descent to Earth in search of her soul. The location of this land fall proved to be nostalgic adventure; I had not heard nor smelled the ocean since my own life was brutally snatched away from me. I could not say I did not enjoy it, revisiting something so lively and powerful that existed not only in my immortal life but my mortal one as well. However the small enjoyment was a dull one. It was then I heard the lyrics of her most fascinating song.

Insert Song

Her voice was that of a siren, so entrancing, so beautiful it instantly caught my attention. In a way I knew that her song would have the same effect on me as the siren's song affected the pathetic men she lured to their deaths. For so many years, for so many decades, I had forgotten what it felt like to be intrigued but her song reminded me of my home. I could feel her ghostly lyrics swirl the air around me as I took in the city that I had arrived in. Sounds of street sirens of the police officer's cars echoed like the shrilling voices of the dead right before judgment, the night air was clogged with the gagging smell of sea salt lacing it's self with the stench of rotting garbage that cluttered the alleys. My nose wrinkled from the new smells, humans was so wasteful, and disorganized when it came to things they no longer wanted. A fault I was glad to be rid of.

"No that's not right!" she groaned her voice clearly frustrated by her lack of memory of the song, "I don't even think those two lines were even by the same band!"

Once again her ghostly lyrics laced themselves with the night symphony teasing my renewed senses as a mother would lightly tickle her variable infant. I moved forward, stretching my charcoal wings as far as they would go (for even though I was an angel I still was a reaper which meant everything of from my clothes to my wings were black. However I have to add to this that the only expectations to this rule where my scarlet eyes and my pale glowing skin that most light toned ghost possessed). I could see them (here if I may be so bold to interrupt myself yet again just to state that since I was indeed a mortal my eyes and other natural senses where heightened so that I could view and hear all actions that took place in front of me from about a miles distance), the detectives hover- no hovered would not be a correct verb to describe their actions- they lumbered around the small rundown apartment scratching their heads while they searched for the clues of the murder that they would never find. There would be no damning evidence of the events that had taken place that life shattering night. They stood there in their tight circle, some of their dull eyes scanning the once peaceful home while others stared blankly off into space. Some law enforcers they were, they only mimic justice only one of these impostures ever actually sought out the truth about that night.

I know.

I was watching.

"HEY! Do any of you guys know they lyrics to this song?" she paused seeming confused for a brief second before yelling at the top of her lungs, "What do you mean be quiet? Why don't you be quiet and get out of my house!"

My eyes followed the voice to its owner where I was able to see the spirit that I had come for. Sapphire eyes on a heart shaped face trimmed in deep scarlet widened with anger and a sense of hopelessness as she tried to scream louder at those known as she fustily yelled at the new in habitants in her home. Ah but mark me my new friend that when I say new I do not mean the police that we examining her house; I mean more transparent roommates. You guessed correct if you guessed that she could now see the dead, after all she herself had joined them not an hour before. So why you might ask are these spirits still on earth and not in their heavenly destination? Well the answer to this is quite simple really, there are things known as squatters. Squatters, an annoying race of spirits, are souls that just refuse to move on. We that ferry the dead can only perform our job if the ghost permits us to lead them to the next life, if they chose to stay on earth then they are allowed but they can never move on. It is the law of death, the second to one law. But to move back to the main plot of this tale, her eyebrows cast themselves up into a broken arch of heart break as she finally slid down the wall into the corner, banishing her sorrowful stricken face into her hands.

Of course the squatters would not leave her house as she demanded, they could not. I could see how their reaction to her, and her response to them greatly affected her mental state and well being. Since death had taken her she was no longer on the same plane as the ones who were _trying _to solve her death thus she was not able to contact them either. She was in isolation, alone in the world of the dead, abandoned by the remaining spirits and forgotten by the living.

"Come now girl don't cry," I heard a voice purr.

She raised her head; her face was stained with tears then gasped, "Who are you?"

I stepped off the building, falling down to the ground in one swoop, unseen by the humans that walked past me only a few feet away. Walking to the apartments I stopped where I knew her window was, I could see the light from the inside shinning down on the darken street, and kicked off the ground. My wings beat against the air until I was even with the rather larger window looking in at the two with a dark expression carved out on my face.

"Well, if it isn't my good ole friend Mors," Wrath sarcastically inquired, her thin lips curled into a wicked smile.

I glared at her from the window for a moment evaluating the situation that had complicated itself more than I had suspected it would. After weighing my options I stepped through the glass and planted myself firmly on the carpets floor only feet away from the eldest detective in the room. I glared up at the supposed eleven year old girl that lounged so cat-like on stop of a shelf, kicking her red rain boot covered feet against the books beneath her. Her movements did not even create motion on the shelf. In her left hand she clutched a once brown teddy bear, which at this point had been burned so many times that he was nearly black. I asked of her as a response, "Why are you here Wrath? Has your master sent you?"

The girl, who might I add was not a girl at all but a woman of twenty three looked at me with wide eyes, so wide that I thought for a moment in a cyclical way that they might fall out of her head from how far they popped out of their sockets from surprise. Our eye met for a moment and in that moment I could feel a connection beginning to form. I had to force myself to focus on the demon before and forget about her for the time being. She had to come last, the demon came first.

"Yes," she leaped down pretending to dust off the fringed ends of her silk white gown stained in blood, "He has sent me here because he wants this girl's soul and I intend to take it."

She stood up; clearly comprehending that false child was referring to her and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Who are you people? What do you want?"

I ignored her, not to mean or to be cruel but to address the demon before me, "You may explain to your master that your services are unnecessary seeing how the girl is now under my protection from the likes of you and your kind."

She smirked from underneath the giant white sun glasses that she wore on her face, "We will see which way she goes. Next time I come I want to play with her Mors, I would have her now but Mama says I have to wait until I finish playing with my other toys."

With her last chilling statement she disappeared, shimmering in the air for a moment before it seemed like her body completely vanished. My eyes turned to the girl who was wide eyed and look as if she was about to run out of the room screaming at the top of her lungs. I took a step forward and she took one back, I did it again and she gave me the same response as before.

Newly departed spirits were the hardest to deal with, they always found a way to complicate the most simplest of things. If you tried to tell them that they were dead, they would argue. They would find any excuse in the world to fight back, repeat over and over the reason why they were not dead, it was like if they said it long enough it made it true.

But it didn't.

"Listen," I started almost reaching out before jerking my hand back to me, "my name is Mors and I am here to take you to the next world."

She blinked mouthing what I had just said back to me, before actually obtaining her voice, "D-d-dea-d, I-I-I'm not d-d-dea-d."

I nodded my head, "But you are."

She shook, her entire body trembling with whatever emotion that was circling inside her mind. Then to my own surprise she did something I had not expected her to do, she began to sing again, Insert Song.

I felt the birth of a small smile tug at my lips but fought it back, when she had finished I stated, "The song you sing when you are upset is an odd."

She laughed a small chime sound like the bells of a cathedral, "I don't really know why I sing it, I just do."

She said her last statement rather calmly but I knew in the end she would do like all the others, cry, weep, beg to go back into her body, like I was in charge of such things such as that. I was no god, no powerful creator, no I was just an immortal who became that way through death, handed down a task to complete, and I would complete it, so that one day I might enter the gates of paradise.

Then she said what all the other spirits say when I come to them (well expect you of course seeing as you cannot even hope to utter a single word in your condition), "But seriously I'm not dead so you can go now. Shoo fly don't bother me."

"Yes you are," I adamantly responded knowing very well that my deep crimson eyes were not very intimidating to her as they would be for any other spirit, especially a female one. Most ghosts that happen to be of the feminine gender either batted their swooning eyes at me or they simply shied away completely, both odd reactions to me.

"But if I'm dead then…" she trailed off glancing around the room for something, when her ghostly eyes landed on it she made an attempt to pick it up. She passed right through the picture frame of a young teenager holding a small infant in her arms. She gasped, letting her arms fall limply to her sides.

"Do you see now?" I questioned her, raising one of my eyebrows to make my point to her.

Gulping, she nodded, her eyes down casted to her feet.

Once again she provoked curiosity out of me. While her eyes were so painfully casted to the floor, I moved so that I was only a few inches away from her. Her long hair hung over her face symbolizing her defeat by death, she still trembled, but she was not begging. She had not uttered but one thing unlike all the other spirits had and that is was gain my curiosity the most.

"It is not so bad," I found myself whispering to her, the detectives around us deaf to our conversations and blind to our spiritual bodies.

She smiled, "Yeah I know especially since I'm not dead and your just a figure of my imagination, of course I never really considered myself this creative before.

"I am not in your mind; I am real and for are dead."

"Sure. Sure thing," she sarcastically agreed, "if you say so Casper."

Holding my palm out to her I waited for her response, but she declined my hand and instead stated, "What?"

"Come on we have to leave?"

"Why?"

"Because your time here is up and you need to move on."

"Right," she placed her hand in my palm, "I don't really care either way since none it is real so yeah I'll go with you."

The second time she placed her hand in my own. I shut my eyes allowing the imagery of our destination soared on my mind's eye as I said one word: Terra di Giudizio.


End file.
